Jennifer Lopez etched herself into fashion history with her green Grammys look, but Amber Valletta did it first.
The supermodel, 49, reflected on some of her most iconic fashion moments for an episode of Vogue’s “Life in Looks” series, including when she walked the runway in the iconic plunging jungle-print Versace gown later seen on J.Lo.
“This dress has been Googled more times than any other look in history. It literally broke the internet when [Lopez] wore it, so it’s kind of cool to be a part of that history,” she said, referencing the singer’s jaw-dropping 2000 Grammys outfit.
However, Valletta — who opened Versace’s spring/summer 1999 show in the gown — reminded fans, “I wore it first.”
“I think this was like the pinnacle of, like, fierce Versace sexiness, blond ambition,” she explained. “It was just like, Donatella, Donatella, Donatella.”
The model continued, “I wore it on the runway and then obviously, I did the campaign. Then, J.Lo wore it to the Grammys. It was a massive iconic moment when she wore that dress.”
Valletta explained that celebrities rarely showed skin on the red carpet back then — until Lopez changed the game.
“I think it was just so ahead of its time and just said, ‘I’m woman and hear me roar … Literally from the jungle.”
In fact, Donatella Versace loved the dress so much that she wore it herself — a few months before Lopez.
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The designer wore the daring dress to the 1999 “Rock Style”-themed Met Gala, and later lended it to Spice Girl Geri Halliwell for the NRJ Music Awards in Cannes, France.
Yet it wasn’t until Lopez slipped on the cleavage-framing ‘fit that it finally got the recognition it deserved.
However, it wasn’t identical to the dress Valletta had worn one year prior.
While she kept the massive brooch and sheer lining, Donatella transformed the mid-length style into a floor-length gown for the star-studded awards show.
Not only did the look change the trajectory of red carpet fashion, but it also inspired the team at Google to launch a groundbreaking new tool.
“At the time, it was the most popular search query we had ever seen,” Google’s former executive chairman Eric Schmidt wrote for Project Syndicate. “But we had no surefire way of getting users exactly what they wanted — J.Lo wearing that dress. Google Image Search was born.”
Fast-forward 20 years, and Lopez made headlines in the look once again, closing Versace’s spring/summer 2020 show in a modernized version of the dress.
The updated frock — which shockingly showed even more skin than the original — was backless and sleeveless, complete with a bedazzled unitard.
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