Bad Bunny Wore Zara Performing At The Super Bowl LX Halftime Show
Bad Bunny’s much anticipated Super Bowl LX halftime show took place in Santa Clara last night, where he performed Tití Me Preguntó, Yo Perreo Sola, Safaera, and more.
While some viewers were strangely bemoaning the fact that he sang in his native tongue, others were more surprised by his decision to wear Zara. I fall firmly into the latter camp.
Yes, Zara is a Spanish label. Yes, I have worn Zara in my lifetime. This is not me taking a moral stance on fast fashion. However, there are countless Puerto Rican designers who would have benefitted from the visibility of this global moment, and that is hard to ignore.
Some will argue that choosing Zara makes fashion feel accessible, reinforcing the idea that impactful performance looks do not need to come from exclusive labels. But unless the full outfit was available at 9am in every Zara store worldwide, that argument feels thin, at least from a fashion perspective.
That said, there were elements of the look that did visually link back to his Puerto Rican roots. The cropped football style jersey featuring the number 64 was not a sports reference, as many assumed. It pointed to 1964, the year Puerto Rico adopted its current constitution. Wearing that number during a Super Bowl halftime show was a subtle but clear way of centring Puerto Rican identity on the biggest US broadcast platform.
On the back of the top, it read “Ocasio,” Bad Bunny’s real surname. His full name, of course, is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio. That detail shifted the jersey from costume to something personal.
The most interesting element, and one many will miss, was the rope tied around his waist. This was never meant to function as a belt. It was a deliberate workwear reference, tied to labour and the everyday dress codes seen across Puerto Rico.
The rope also carries symbolic weight. It suggests binding, survival, and self-reliance. Taken together with the number and his surname, it formed a quiet visual narrative about identity and ownership, even if the overall fashion choice stopped short of fully committing to that story.
The choice of colour mattered too. Dressed in a cream palette, the neutrality allowed the symbolism to do the talking. Against the spectacle of a Super Bowl stage, the absence of colour sharpened the focus on the details: the 64, his surname, and the rope. The colour acted as a backdrop, reinforcing the personal and cultural references threaded through the look.
Debuting a new colourway of his Adidas BadBo 1.0 sneakers and an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak timepiece completed the look.
Stylist: Mel Ottenberg.
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