Why Bad Bunny's Super Bowl Zara Outfit Was A Checkmate To Fashion's Sustainability Discourse
What sustainability means at the grassroots
Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, or Bad Bunny as he is famously known, is no stranger to experimenting with his style. From wearing a trench-coat-cum-dress with rich grandma-style lorgnette glasses at the 2022 Met Gala to the Schiaparelli suit with corset-like back details he wore to the Grammys last week, he’s one of the few male celebrities you can always count on to experiment with his wardrobe and the designers that he works with.
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So, it might have come as a little surprising when the Puerto Rican singer showed up on the biggest stage in America in… Zara. Yes, the Spanish fast fashion brand, Zara. Style by his long-time collaborators Marvin Douglas Linares and Storm Pablo, he wore a custom all white and cream monochrome look: layered over a collared short and tie was a cropped sweatshirt inspired by boxy football jerseys, stamped with the word Ocasio and the number 64, a sentimental nod to his mother, Lysaurie Ocasio and her birth year, 1964, if fan theories are to be believed. This he paired with matching chinos, moto-inspired gloves, his newly announced collaboration with Adidas, the BadBo 1.0, and a rope belt he has been wearing in various capacities since the release of his grammy winning album DTmF, as a nod to Jibaro culture.
Quick culture lesson here: Jibaro is not that gold-clad girl from that viral Love Death + Robot episode, it’s the Puerto Rican term for small-scale self-sufficient farmers who form the basis of Puerto Rican culture and pride.
In fact, much of his lush Super Bowl Halftime set paid homage to Latin culture - sugarcane fields lined a traditional casita (a small house) where Bomba dancers and central Latina figures like Toñita, the owner of Caribbean Social Club in New York (and about whom Ocasio sings in Nuevayol) made special appearances, along with Pedro Pascal, Cardi B, and Karol G. He closed the show with a shoutout to all the countries that make up North and South America. Latin-pop legend Ricky Martin performed in New York-based Dominican designer Raul Lopez’s Luar, while Lady Gaga sang a bilingual, salsa-inspired version of Die With A Smile wearing a Luar ruffled blue dress with a flor de maga brooch (that’s the national flower of Puerto Rico). Puerto Rican designer Jomary Segarra and his brand Yomas designed the outfits of the dancers at the casita.
All of this makes the choice of Bad Bunny wearing Zara a little more, interesting, for lack of a better word. Is there a Zara x Bad Bunny collab incoming? Probably, now that we know how successful the show was, and Ocasio isn’t one to shy away from little moments of self promotion.
But over the course of his music career, we have also seen Benito Ocasio double down on his Puerto Rican heritage, and, with the onset of ICE raids and deportations in the United States, on the idea that America and the American Dream belongs to everyone regardless of where they come from. Last week, he began his Grammy speech by saying, “Before I say thanks to God, I’m gonna say: ICE out…. We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans.” Today, among the many standout moments in his halftime show, one includes Benito handing his Grammy to his younger self, played by the child actor Lincoln Fox. According to the internet, Fox was also chosen because of his striking resemblance to Liam Ramos, the preschool kid who made headlines after he was detained by ICE.
It's not like Bad Bunny was at a lack of options when it comes to designers. If anything, him having his guests in Luar and Yomas and himself in Zara, when he knows all eyes are on which designer he wears, definitely feels like a well-intentioned fashion statement, albeit maybe a little misplaced.
Misplaced because everyone knows about Zara’s role in the fast fashion industry and the exploitation of hundreds, if not thousands of workers making these clothes. Well-intentioned, because Benito, coming from a background where a couture is only a fantasy for most people, would know that fashion's moral high-horse talk of buying from sustainable brands does not translate to the people on the grassroots, who simply cannot afford them. For many of these people, sustainability would come differently: through the clothes that they buy from a fast fashion store at the lowest discount they can get, through using them for years and years till the colours give way to grey or a younger sibling is old enough to wear it as a hand-me-down.
Bad Bunny could wear that Prada or that Schiaparelli or that Maison Margiela he has worn countless times before. But in a concert about everyone being just as deserving and equal as everyone else, he chose to wear the outfit that everyone could equally access.