Musically, Kendrick Can Do No Wrong. But What About His Jeans?

Kendrick Lamar, having brought his world-conquering Drake diss "Not Like Us" to the biggest stage in America, is musically without peer. But what about his jeans?

During February 9's Super Bowl Halftime Show, Lamar performed a medley of hit songs wearing bootcut denim jeans. Yes, Lamar was also clad in custom Martine Rose. Yes, SZA performed while surprise guest Serena Williams c-walked. Yes, 60 thousand fans chanted Lamar's immortal "A Minor" bar in unison.

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But hip-hugging flared mom jeans seem a rare stylistic misstep. At first, that is.

At Super Bowl 2025, Lamar wore CELINE's "Flared Surf Jeans in Summer Dazed Wash Denim," a signature Hedi Slimane design that is quite literally $1,300 bootcuts.

Getty Images

Getty Images

Despite the designer label, these things smack of "NTDenim," a derogative genre of denim jeans inspired by the tragic pooling often affected by sneakerheads.

But Kendrick Lamar is one of the most stylish dudes in rap, if not all of music.

Only Lamar could balance buzzy designers like Willy Chavarria — with whom Lamar designed a Super Bowl merch collection — and Eli Russell Linnetz' ERL with a selection of vintage finds and indie designers like Evan Kinori, mostly highlighted through his finsta.

This is the guy most likely to bring Chanel to the masses, you know (besides Matthieu Blazy, I suppose).

And so, though bootcut jeans could be treacherous territory for some, they're child's play for K Dot.

They were likely selected for Lamar's Halftime Show costume as part of a grander narrative, a daring reclamation of the most divisive denim in all the land.

Perhaps due to Lamar's unmatchable charisma, epitomized by mid-song camera-facing smirks and some outrageously smooth moves, those four-figure flares just felt right.

The bootcut is not an easy cut of jeans to work with. Too long and it warps the leg. Too short and it bulges awkwardly. The ideal flare expands below the knee, in the process lengthening the wearer's lower torso and affecting an air of unbothered rocker sauciness by highlighting the thighs and tush.

It's a challenge for the most advanced dressers. Pharrell has made the flared jean his signature look since taking over Louis Vuitton, for instance, steering the luxury label towards the wild West in the process. However, as inimitably stylish as Pharrell may be, his big ol' bootcuts are for Pharrell alone.

That is to say, the culture has yet to follow Skateboard P on this one.

But the general reaction to Lamar's flares, more moderate and grungy than Pharrell's LV denim, was... quite good.

A February 10 search for tweets related to Kendrick's bootcuts dug up plenty of praise, with some admirers going so far as to deem them the epitome of idealized men's flared jeans. And more than one person demanded a link to shop Lamar's look (and were most likely rebuffed by the price tag of Lamar's designer denim).

Still, Kendrick Lamar is the people's champ. Who else could democratize one of the most divisive cuts in all of denim?

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