"In fashion everything is cyclical." There is no more recurring phrase to justify how some designers reinterpret, over and over again, their own work 10 or 20 years after presenting an original collection. This reinterpretation reaches heights of influence unimaginable if the elements that collide are Jennifer Lopez (50 years) and Versace: an alliance of immeasurable power.
This past Friday, September 20, Donatella Versace (64) had a surprise prepared for the fans of the legendary Italian house. The closing of the Spring-Summer 2020 show within the context of Milano Fashion Week had a name and surname. To the astonishment of those present and of those who followed the presentation of the new Versace through social networks, Jennifer Lopez burst onto the catwalk wearing nothing more and nothing less than a classic. It is about the jungle dress, the dress that she wore to the GRAMMY Awards in 2000 and that marked a before and after not only in the history of fashion and music but also changed the course of the Internet.
One more dress within the first collections of Donatella Versace was presumed as the thinking head of the Italian firm that passed into his hands after a man shot down Gianni, his brother and founder of the brands, at the doors of his mansion of Miami. Green, tropical, printed silk, with a dizzying neckline, infinite openings and endless transparencies. In December 1999, Donatella herself, as her own brand ambassador, was in charge of taking him to the traditional MET Ball Gala in New York. In January 2000, Geri Halliwell (47), wore the same piece at the NRJ Awards in France. But it took more than a good hanger and a guaranteed barrage of flashes to elevate the dress to iconic status.On February 23, 2000, Jennifer Lopez attended the GRAMMY gala as a nominee for Waiting for Tonight and that was when she stopped the world. The New Yorker from the Bronx was clear that for such a special moment she needed a dress to match. Her then-hers stylist, Andrea Lieberman, only brought her three possible dresses to a fitting that took place during breaks from filming the movie Wedding Plans. In the words of JLo herself for Vogue: "I tried on the green dress and when I left everyone told me that that was the dress. Everyone, except my stylist. So I asked, 'why did you bring it?' She advised me not to wear it because other celebrities had already worn it, but I decided to. I wasn't nervous at all about the dress. I was because of the GRAMMYs. "
With the decision made just hours before the red carpet of the most important awards in the music industry, the artist was not aware of what was about to happen. Upon her arrival at the photocall, she realized that the energy between her and the photographers was already different. She posed in a hurry, she was in charge of presenting the first GRAMMY of the night. Next to her, on stage at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, David Duchovny (59), the protagonist of The X-Files and someone who had never been cast in a public shadow until then given her massive fame for the famous series.
Jennifer Lopez has come to reveal that when going on stage the applause was not the usual for two people who were simply going to deliver an award. Whistles, cheers and praises chanting her name were heard until she herself had to stop the crowd with a smile and a shy "Hello!" as she waved her hand. "It is the first time in years that nobody looks at me," said the interpreter, a true idol of the masses at that time, to the spontaneous reaction of people to see Lopez dressed in the wildest Versace dress.
And not only was it a milestone that fused music and fashion,
it also changed the Internet. Sergei Mikhailovich Brin (46) and Larry Page
(46), founders of Google, verified that the dress had gone viral (before the
term existed) and that their most powerful tool needed an exclusively images
section due to the barrage of searches that I had received: this is how
Google Images was born.
