Remember Justin Bieber’s song “Boy-friend”? Most people would agree that the best part of this song is when Bieber whis-pers “swag, swag, swag.” Although Bieber has plenty of swag, not even he can claim he found swagger. A Colgate alumnus, however, can, well, at least Swagger New York.

Sian-Pierre Regis ’06 founded the online blog Swagger. Originally a street style blog capturing the most stylish young New Yorkers.

“Swagger has evolved to a cutting edge culture site that updates cool young people on what’s hot in fashion, music, news and pop culture,” Regis said.

By now, you’ve come across a million blogs, but Regis insists that Swagger is nothing like your friends’ study abroad blog.

“Everyone has a blog, but not everyone has an interesting blog. I think our ability to shine has really come from our ability to a) not do too much at once – we grew slowly, adding one section atop the next, b) being honest with our voice and c) the hus-tle – we’ve been able to connect with key influencers in media and on the streets so that people at Hearst or New York Maga-zine believe in what we’re doing as much as downtown college kids,” Regis said.

And these big players really have taken note of Swagger and Regis’s eye for style. Recently, street style from Swagger has been featured on Huffington Post. The site has also been featured in Elle, The Wall Street Journal, Glamour and Nylon.

Creating Swagger and making it suc-cessful did not happen magically, but in-stead Regis put a lot of hard work into his creation. Although he thinks that blogging has done great things to open up the con-versation in all areas, from politics to fash-ion to media, he maintains that quality of content is required for success.

“I think that only the smart people suc-ceed in life, so if you create a blog that’s not well written, not well researched and lack-ing perspective, don’t think you’ll make a dent in the industry,” Regis said.

With this hard work and smarts, you can get what you want no matter where you are and what background you have, even a Colgate student who might want to go into fashion or any other unexpected industry.

“Don’t think Colgate is holding you back if you want to do anything outside of business or law or whatever. Figure out what your passion is and go for it. Use Colgate for connections to help you swing your way toward the top. As long as you’re smart – which, by way of going to Colgate, you are – you can do whatever you want,” Regis said.

Regis has definitely followed his own ad-vice in his career. Beyond Swagger, Regis is a correspondent for MTV’s ACT blog, where he profiles celebrities and young people mak-ing a difference. He has also been featured in an American Express commercial for its new youth travel program Nextpedition.

Looking at all of his projects, you can see that, no matter what Regis does, he puts all of his heart and soul into his work. With his innovation and risks, this Colgate alum has come pretty far.

Contact Rachel Eisen at

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