Stock up on protein powder and renew that PureGym membership, people, because bulking season is back in fashion. Just two days ago, Collina Strada sent a gang of strongwomen down its NYFW runway, with models decked out in painted muscle suits and carrying dumbbells of the gourd variety. Days before, Shayne Oliver debuted his latest Anonymous Club collection at Berlin Fashion Week, where models also hit the catwalk wearing prosthetic muscles, and hulking bodybuilders sported teeny-tiny gym shorts. And earlier this month, Natasha Zinko presented a pre-fall collection of trompe l’oeil torsos and shearling six-packs, a continuation of the ‘She-Hulk’ motif the label’s weaved into its collections since AW23.

Now, on the biggest stage of them all, Off-White has got in on the action. For Usher’s Super Bowl Halftime performance, the US label – where Dazed editor-in-chief Ib Kamara works as art and image director – constructed a crystallised muscle top and matching moto jacket for the finale of the 13-minute set. In an elaborate roller skate section lifted from his Las Vegas residency, Usher swept onto the stage in the custom look, before launching into a rendition of his 2010s banger “OMG”, joined by Will.i.am. The R&B superstar then switched out of his skates into sturdier footwear, before inviting Lil’ John and Ludacris on stage, playing out the show with “Yeah”.

While muscles are taking over the AW24 catwalks (and now the Super Bowl stage), Off-White actually debuted its take for SS23, when the label stitched superhero torsos onto blazers, coats and tees. That collection then seemed to form the basis of Usher’s look last night, with Kamara telling GQ that Usher came to the Off-White team with a “heavily researched”, 50-page moodboard of what he wanted for the show. “There was a sense of empowerment within the moodboard that I really drew from,” continued the creative director, which checks out in terms of Usher’s current trajectory. The singer has been experiencing a renaissance of late, one which many may think is long overdue, so it makes sense that he’d want to project an almost otherworldly sense of strength while reclaiming his position as a pop culture heavyweight.

Elsewhere, Kamara also revealed that the musician only had 40 seconds to change out of his Dolce & Gabbana ensemble that he could be seen wearing at the start of the performance. “Everything is being meticulously planned. A lot of work goes into a quick change of 40 seconds,” Kamara told the magazine. For the Off-White team, this involved installing a zipper down the back of the muscled sweater and cutting it to half the size – just a day before the performance. Despite the quick turnaround, everything was finished in time, and the label showed off its handiwork on Instagram beforehand, boasting that the look was “composed of five different pieces covered with a total of 394,000 crystals.”