Internet's First Viral Outfit: JLo's Green Versace Dress Inspired Google Images

The year 2000 was quite an amazing and revolutionary year for the technology giant, Google. When renowned actress and singer Jennifer Lopez appeared on the Grammy Awards 2000 red carpet in a jungle-print green Versace dress, it quickly became the most searched query on the internet. However, JLo's dress didn't just break the internet, it MADE it! This viral dress reportedly inspired the creation of Google Images.

In 2019, JLo made the dress viral once again, as she wore a similar design for the closing of the Versace Spring 2020 show in Milan. She was also often spotted wearing recreations of the dress, once as a street-style tracksuit and once as a bodysuit for her concert. The dress has its very own fan following, even over 20 years down the line.

In January 2015, Google's president, Eric Schmidt, cited the massive attention to this dress as the motivation for the creation of Google Images search. Vincento Riili, the marketing director of Google Italy, wrote a blog post in 2019 recalling the story of the dress and Google Images. He wrote that the search results were just a matter of blue links. However, the Search team suddenly realised that people were not getting the images of their choice, instead were sent to links. 

This was when they thought of having a collection of images, and hence, Google Images was born. Riili wrote that the impact of that dress was commendable and also difficult to envisage. The dress had a jungle print, and it left a great technological impact on the minds of people, as well as on the technical exploration of the giant.

JLo's Historic Versace Dress

Jennifer Lopez's green Versace dress is such an iconic moment that it has its very own Wikipedia page. Featuring a deep (really deep) neck, high (really high) slit, and a citrine-studded crotch, the flowy, silk-chiffon dress is often known as the "Jungle Dress".

Designed by legendary couturier Donatella Versace, the dress was first launched in 1999. It was already sported by several public figures, including Donatella herself. However, it wasn't until music icon JLo wore it to the 2000s Grammys that it gained worldwide attention. That year, the dress had a market value of approximately $15,000.

Ironically, JLo's stylist wasn't keen on her wearing the dress as it had already been worn by many celebrities before. The singer-actress revealed in a recent interview with Vogue, "It was a dress that other people had worn already. My stylist was like, 'Please don't wear it. Somebody else has worn it.' But I said, 'Well, you bought it and it looks best. I'm wearing it.'" Talk about the butterfly effect! According to reports, Jennifer Lopez still owns the original Grammy 2000 dress, while a copy of it is displayed at the Grammy Museum.