To many, only one thing stood out in Kendrick Lamar’s performance, his actual show. But, really, it was two things.
Lamar’s pant legs, unlike many other men’s, were flared at the bottom, stretching past his shoes and providing a unique look. Lamar’s Super Bowl style was relatively simple, with a leather varsity jacket, a baseball cap, flared light-wash jeans, a few layered chains, and sneakers.
Compared to many other Super Bowl performers’ outfits of previous years, like Rihanna or Beyoncé, Lamar’s outfit seemed basic.
However, rather than making his outfit stop the show, Lamar’s outfit was directly connected to his music. With red, white, black, and blue accents, his outfit became a part of the American flag his backup dancers created. His outfit, from his beloved L.A. Dodgers baseball cap to his varsity jacket and Nike sneakers, seemed to symbolize America itself, perhaps as a taunt to his Canadian rap rival Drake.
Lamar’s outfit was a connection to his performance through symbolism. Everything meant something. For example, his large ‘A’ chain was a reference to his infamous viral diss track “They Not Like Us.”
Lamar’s red and blue custom letterman jacket had the word ‘Gloria’ on the front, a reference to one of the tracks on his latest album, GNX. According to Christian Allaire of Vogue, “Gloria serves as a metaphor for Lamar’s pen name. “Gloria, which means ‘glory’ in Spanish, becomes a personification of rap glory—his ‘pen’ and the artistic journey it represents.”
This jacket’s reference indirectly shows Lamar’s domination over the charts and the journey he traveled to achieve his goals. His 70’s-inspired Céline flare jeans showed that Lamar, like many 70’s icons, was unafraid to stand up and stand out. Lamar’s entire show featured symbolism and his outfit was no exception to the rule.
Although Lamar’s performance was exceptional, his jeans stood out specifically to many. With over 100 million viewers watching from around the world, the Super Bowl created an audience for Lamar’s long-preferred flare pants.
As a result of this, flares in men’s fashion could be primed for a global comeback. According to Hannah Malach of WWD, Kendrick Lamar’s Celine jeans were the buzziest fashion moment at the 2025 Super Bowl, a placement that earned the French brand $2.3 million in media impact value, according to Launchmetrics…Searches for “flared jeans’ spiked on Google, with 5,000 percent of them taking place within 48 hours after the Super Bowl.”
Nhu-An Phan, president of CCHS’ fashion club, thinks that Lamar’s performance affected the fashion scene, saying “I feel like it primarily affected like men’s fashion but I’ve definitely seen like more of a rise to like flare jeans [in general] or just like like men trying out new styles. Because generally, you don’t really see flare jeans in men’s fashion, but I think after [the performance] like a lot more people were willing to explore it because they saw it [on Kendrick Lamar] and they liked how it looked.”
She also said that the trend could be worldwide because “with the spread of social media and such, with flare jeans trending in America, it will also spread globally as well.”
With baggy jeans slowly falling in popularity, could Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl fashion choices be the catalyst for a men’s fashion revolution?
