J Balvin Is Trying Something New

One night time final fall, J Balvin, the reggaeton rapper, shared a photograph of the again of his naked neck. Deep crimson imprints fashioned a sort of collar as if somebody had tried to choke the Colombian celebrity with scalding scorching chains.

In actuality, Mr. Balvin had simply come from his first Met Gala, at which he’d worn a cartoonishly giant stack of brightly coloured bejeweled necklaces for a number of hours.

“It actually harm,” Mr. Balvin mentioned. “This time, I don’t even have one chain.”

This time, Mr. Balvin is attempting one thing new. As a substitute of a tuxedo coated in a fantastical kaleidoscope of floral gildings, he wore a couldn’t-be-more-classic tux by Ralph Lauren: black, with tails, over a white shirt and bow tie.

This time, he additionally didn’t cowl half of his face with a stylish balaclava (a glance that Mr. Balvin mentioned made him really feel as if he “was there however not there, like a ninja”). Somewhat, he walked the carpet with a cane from Ralph Lauren’s fall 2012 assortment. His lapels had been adorned with classic brooches, complementing his classic watch chain, classic studs and classic cuff hyperlinks.

“It’s a complete totally different look than how I usually gown,” Mr. Balvin mentioned, including it was a “extra severe and chic” model of the playful fashion he has turn into identified for, whether or not attending an awards present (sporting a monochromatic radioactive-yellow go well with); performing onstage (in silky orange shorts, with an identical bomber jacket and bucket hat); or sitting entrance row at a style present (in a maxi puffer skirt).

A number of days earlier than the Met Gala, in a becoming for his formal Ralph Lauren look, Mr. Balvin mentioned he realized, “I’ve by no means seen myself like that.”

On this method, Mr. Balvin displays a bigger pattern on this 12 months’s “gilded glamour” carpet: Celebrities who’d usually be anticipated to go massive and daring — for an occasion that has basically turn into the world’s most extravagant, and unique, costume get together — are paring again. The rapper mentioned he welcomed the chance to point out his “versatility.”

But Mr. Balvin continues to be Mr. Balvin. For the Met Gala, his buzzed head was dyed neon inexperienced. (It was reduce with shades of pink for Coachella; earlier than that, he’d dyed it blue and added a KAWS-esque crimson coronary heart for the Grammys.)

Mr. Balvin wished some distinction, he mentioned — to carry a chunk of the longer term into the Gilded Age, “with some particulars which can be extra in my DNA.”