Coco Jones honored Whitney Houston and Black fashion history by wearing a Karl Kani designed ensemble while performing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” at Super Bowl LX. It all went down at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara California in an effort to connect legacy style with modern spectacle.
Before the lights and cameras of the NFL’s biggest stage ever captured Jones, another Super Bowl moment had already been etched into cultural memory. In 1991 Whitney Houston delivered a now legendary rendition of the national anthem at Super Bowl XXV in Tampa Florida as the New York Giants edged the Buffalo Bills 20-19. Houston’s white tracksuit became as iconic as her voice that day, symbolizing poise pride and athletic grace at a moment when the world was watching.
That image served as the foundation for Jones’ performance look more than three decades later. Designed by fashion icon Karl Kani, the outfit reworked Houston’s original silhouette into a high fashion statement without losing its athletic essence.
The familiar tracksuit was transformed into a mini bubble skirt with a sweeping train paired with a cropped jacket trimmed with red, black and green. The result blended classic streetwear and Black excellence into a massive statement.
“It kept that athletic feeling but elevated it into something elegant and dramatic,” Kani told Essence when describing the approach behind the look.
For Kani the Super Bowl moment carried weight far beyond fashion.
Founded in 1989 his brand helped define modern streetwear through oversized silhouettes bold logos and denim that resonated across Hip-Hop culture. His designs were worn by Aaliyah, Tupac, The Notorious B.I.G. and Jay-Z, especially in the 1990s. Kani later became the first Black designer to secure a full page advertisement in The New York Times helping legitimize the genre and open doors for future designers.
“I’m overwhelmed,” Kani said. “They could have gone to any designer in the world—Gucci, Fendi, Prada. But they came to Karl Kani. To pay homage to streetwear and to a brand that meant everything to me that’s something special.”
Reflecting on the journey Kani pointed to perseverance as the defining factor.
“It speaks to the resilience it took for us to be here 35 years later with a brand that started on the streets of Brooklyn,” he said. He added that streetwear and Hip-Hop were once labeled trends destined to fade. “But we’re still here.”
The Super Bowl performance was a visual reminder that Black culture continues to shape the world’s biggest stages on its own terms.
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