Could Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime concert bring back bell bottoms?
At halftime of a very dreary game (unless you’re an Eagles fan), the rapper appeared onstage, backed by dancers dressed in monotone uniforms of blue, red, or white, plainly representing team Lamar.
His varsity jacket, custom-made by Martine Rose, a British designer famed for her humorous and twisted apparel, was adorned with patches to delight the Superdome’s Lamarologists. The front read “Gloria,” which appears to be a reference to the final song on his recent album, “GNX.” The back included a “pgLang” emblem, which represents the creative agency Mr. Lamar co-runs with Dave Free.
Other delectable elements of his outfit included a tilted fitted cap with a feather brooch pinned on the side, as well as a conspicuous “a” chain, which some online interpreted as a nod to the villainous “A Minor” line in Mr. Lamar’s Grammy-winning “Not Like Us” — a line that the stadium hollered in unison at the appropriate time.
But the pièce de résistance, the thing that people began emailing me about, say, two minutes into his performance, were those jeans. They were slim at the top but flared at the hem, gathering over Mr. Lamar’s black-and-white shoes. (The brand of these enticing jeans was not readily identifiable. Taylor McNeil has been Mr. Lamar’s stylist for numerous years.
Their bleachy blue wash was evocative of anything you’d see at Gap circa 2000. This might be positive or detrimental, depending on who you ask. It also matters whether they were boot-cut or bell-bottomed. (I’d call them Woodstock-inspired bell bottoms. The flare was rather flarey. Some online questioned whether Mr. Lamar had stolen their mother’s pants. For my generation, this song brings to mind Britney Spears and Baby Phat. If you’re older, Sonny and Cher may be your reference point.
Mr. Lamar’s jeans offered a glimpse into how diverse and strange the denim business has gotten for the massive Super Bowl audience. We had trompe l’oeil jeans, jeans with legs the size of a playground slide (Mustard, Mr. Lamar’s producer, who arrived late on set, was wearing a pair of them), and jeans with crystals embossed on them. There is currently no prominent trend in denim. If you desire something, you can find it.
I’m not the first to notice that, for males at least, jean-width preferences have shifted in the last half decade or so. Frat guys and conservative politicians are suddenly wearing thin jeans. The stylistically unfazed?
It’s only natural that Mr. Lamar, an adventurous dresser if there ever was one, would be wearing bell bottoms on television’s biggest platform. This man recently donned a Canadian tuxedo to the Grammys. He has attended Chanel fashion presentations dressed all in Chanel.
And if Mr. Lamar, who now rules the rap world, can channel some of his power into fashion, we may have to rediscover the flare.
