It wasn’t Kim Kardashian who first “broke the internet” — it was Jennifer Lopez. The Green Versace dress she wore to the 2000 Grammys was “the most popular search query we had ever seen,” according to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. “But we had no surefire way of getting users exactly what they wanted: J-Lo wearing that dress. Google Image Search was born.”
But Lopez was nearly talked out of wearing the dress by her stylist.
“It was a dress that other people had worn already,” the singer said in a video for Vogue. “You know, my stylist was like, ‘Please don’t wear it, somebody else has worn it.’ 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, you know, quite a stir.”
Even beyond creating Google Image Search, the dress has quite the legacy: South Park co-creator Trey Parker wore a replica to the Oscars (while tripping on acid), and it was once voted the fifth most iconic red carpet dress ever.
Lopez continued, “I guess every generation needs its iconic kind of Marilyn [Monroe] dress, and this is that dress for this generation. 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.”
You can watch video of Lopez at the 2000 Grammys below.
