Jennifer Lopez dropped jaws in 2000 when she attended the GRAMMYs in a green plunging Versace gown. The “Jenny from the Block” singer attended the awards show with her boyfriend at the time, Diddy, and it’s become an iconic fashion moment in pop culture. But if her stylist had her way, it wouldn’t have happened.
Talking to Vogue, JLo told the outlet her stylist begged her not to wear it because it had already been worn. “My stylist was like, ‘Please don’t wear it. Somebody else has worn it,’” she told the outlet.
Model Amber Valletta was the first person to wear the original iteration of the dress in September 1999 when she opened Versace’s Spring/Summer 2000 runway show, but it was a shorter style.
Then, Donatella Versace wore it to the 1999 MET Gala before former Spice Girls member Geri Halliwell-Horner wore it to the NRJ Music Awards in France in January 2000, right before Lopez.
Donatella Versace and Geri Halliwell-Horner
Lopez, who admitted she still gets jealous with Ben Affleck, knew it looked good and followed her gut. “I was like, ‘Well, you bought it, and it looks the best, so I’m going to wear it.’ And so I did. And it caused quite a stir,” the “This is Me… Now” singer said.
The singer, whos twins just had a special birthday, went on to compare it to Marilyn Monroe’s.“I guess every generation needs its iconic kind of Marilyn dress, and this is that dress for this generation,” Lopez said. “Why it became that? It was just a moment when the wind blew open, and I walked out onto the stage, and it just kinda happened.”
Lopez wore the dress again to host “Saturday Night Live” for the first time back in 2001.
Saturday Night Live 2001
Nineteen years later she closed Versace’s spring 2020 Milan fashion show in an updated version of the dress. “Twenty years had gone by, and I think for women, knowing you can put on a dress 20 years later — it resonated,” she told Vanity Fair. “It was like, ‘Yes, you know, life is not over at 20!’”
Versace – Runway – Milan Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2020
