It’s hard to think of a Grammys red carpet moment – scratch that, any red carpet moment – more iconic than Jennifer Lopez’s infamous Versace dress.
Worn by the singer stroke actress stroke defier-of-time back in 2000, the slashed to the navel, slit from the waist gown in an unabashedly bold palm print is still seared into our fashion consciousness 17 years on.
Fashioned from a layer of barely-there chiffon and anchored with a built-in bodysuit and embellished waist detailing, it’s the ultimate proof that the Noughties were ‘extra’ before being extra was a thing.
So all-powerful was the dress that Google Image Search was created to deal with the sheer demand of new Internet users wanting a look: as Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt put it in a 2015 interview, “It was the most popular search query we had ever seen. But we had no sure-fire way of getting users exactly what they wanted: J Lo wearing that dress. Google Image Search was born.”
Spare a thought for Geri Halliwell, fresh from her Spice Girls exit, who wore the exact Versace design to France’s NRJ Music Awards just a few weeks before J Lo – without any of the fashion fanfare garnered by the latter.
The Pretty Little Thing version.
Unless you have access to J Lo’s Noughties closet, it’s been nigh-on impossible to source a similar version of this headline-making Versace dress – until now.
Head to PrettyLittleThing’s online store and you’ll find a remarkably similar style, boasting a low V, a split skirt and a green tropical print, with a ring detail at the navel and a cut-out back.
Unlike the original, however, the price tag is resolutely high street, with PLT’s patterned maxi costing just £30 (insert joke about love not costing a thing here). A beach cover-up that pays homage to J. Lo’s fashion mastery and doubles up as a Noughties fancy dress look?
We’re in.
Via Grazia
