Instead of aligning himself with a luxury fashion house, Bad Bunny stepped onto the field for his highly anticipated Super Bowl Halftime show at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, in a monochromatic cream ensemble designed by Zara. The move from the Puerto Rican artist, who also made history as the first performer to headline the show entirely in Spanish, marked a significant departure from a typical celebrity endorsement and put the popular Spanish retailer at the centre of one of the most widely viewed cultural events of the year.
Styled by longtime collaborators Storm Pablo and Marvin Douglas Linares, Bad Bunny wore a custom all-cream ensemble consisting of a collared shirt and tie, chinos and a cropped football style jersey bearing the name “Ocasio” on the back. His full name, of course, is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio. The jersey also featured the number “64,” which many people online initially assumed represented his mother’s birth year, or was a reference to the year Puerto Rico adopted its current constitution. However, Bad Bunny revealed to The Cut that the number paid tribute to his late uncle Cutito, who was born in 1964. In fact, he taught the rapper “much of what he knows about the NFL.”
“I always dreamed of taking my uncle to a Super Bowl, and I couldn’t,” he told to the publication on Feb. 9 of his uncle, who left Puerto Rico to work on the United States mainland when he was 17. “He left unexpectedly, without warning.”
“So during my Super Bowl halftime show, I decided to have him on my shirt,” he added. “I dedicated my performance to him before it began. I’m sure he saw it, he was present, and he felt proud of his nephew.”
A cream coloured rope was worn around his waist, acting as a belt, and was a deliberate workwear reference, tied to labour and the everyday dress codes seen across Puerto Rico.
Accessories worn during the performance included a pair of cream gloves and a Royal Oak timepiece by Audemars Piguet, featuring a yellow gold case and malachite dial. As for footwear? Bad Bunny wore the BadBo 1.0 trainer, his collaborative design with Adidas, unveiled in a new colourway ahead of its official release.
Halfway through the performance, Bad Bunny removed the jersey and introduced a second Zara look – a cream double-breasted blazer layered over the original collared shirt and tie.
“It was an amazing show,” Zara said in a post-show statement, maintaining a tone that mirrored the understated nature of the styling. “Benito put on a memorable performance. What a great outfit.”
It was the first time Zara has ever outfitted a performer on such a large scale; The Spanish retailer also dressed his backup dancers, band, and orchestra.
The performer—whose set also included renditions of “Yo Perreo Sola,” “Safaera,” “Baile Inolvidable,” and “Nuevayol”—was joined on the field by special guests Lady Gaga (singing a solo version of her Bruno Mars duet “Die With a Smile”) and Ricky Martin (singing Bad Bunny’s song “Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawaii”).
You can watch Bad Bunny’s full 13-minute Super Bowl LX Halftime Show below.
