𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐜𝐞 : The JLO Dress that created Google Images Search

You’ve likely seen this iconic look before; Jeniffer Lopez sporting the historic jungle-green Versace silk dress, bonded by only a piece of tape. The dress had a prodigious impact at the 2000 Grammy’s, instantly becoming a cult classic and further catapulting both JLO & the Versace fashion house to superstardom. “The dress” (as it would become known) was designed by Donatella Versace and re-featured in Versace’s SS20 collection this year for it’s 20th anniversary, where it would melt the internet all over again. But did you know it is the reason Google Images exists today? ⁣⁣
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When JLO was getting ready to attend the 2000 Grammy’s with then-boyfriend Diddy, she didn’t even have an outfit picked. Hours before the show she was presented with 3 dress options, settling for the now-quintessential jungle dress. No one in the room at the time knew the effect this dress was about to have on the world. At a time where Beyoncé or Kim K had yet to walk the red carpet, JLO broke down boundaries with the revealing leaf dress, flipping the industry on it’s head. She instantly sent the media into a frenzy and everyone seated at home begged for another glance at the emerald garment. The problem? It was the year 2000, and Google only supported searches for text information. A few months later, Google Images was born. ⁣⁣
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At the time Google was a small company with only a handful of employees, so they brought on the now-YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki to head the project. Google’s former CEO Eric Schmidt said the 2000 Grammy’s was the key indicator for the world’s desire for images over text. Congruent with fashion’s current obsession with nostalgia, Versace paid homage to the dress in their show this year, introducing JLO with a google command that read “Okay Google, show me the Versace jungle dress” which then prompted a google images search window on the big screen. ⁣⁣
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