Fashion herstory! Before Jennifer Lopez turned heads in Versace’s jungle-print gown at the 2000 Grammys, Amber Valletta donned the sultry number a year before.
Valletta, 49, reflected on the iconic moment while opening up about her incredible style career during a Thursday, April 13, episode of Vogue’s “Life in Looks” YouTube series.
“This dress has been Googled more times than any other look in history,” the supermodel gushed. “It literally broke the internet when [Lopez] wore it, so it’s kind of cool to be a part of that history — but I wore it first.”
The Arizona native — whose resume includes multiple Vogue covers and catwalk moments for Gucci and beyond — first modeled the vibrant green design down Versace’s spring/summer runway show in 1999 and again for a campaign.
“I think this was like the pinnacle of, like, fierce Versace sexiness, blonde ambition,” Valletta said. “It was just like Donatella, Donatella, Donatella. The infamous jungle dress. 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. Nobody went out like that ever. I mean, no one had ever shown skin in the front like that, you know, past the navel … I think it was just so ahead of its time and just said, ‘I’m woman and hear me roar … Literally from the jungle.”
The eye-catching garment was so buzzed about that Google created Google Images so that people could easily find pictures of the dress via the search engine.
Lopez, 53, and Donatella, 67, paid homage to the legendary piece when the “Get Right” singer closed out the luxury label’s spring/summer 2020 show in a modernized version of the gown. Lopez opened up about strutting her stuff in the look at a September 2019 event promoting her Promise fragrance, sharing: “Donatella was like, ‘You know it’s been 20 years’ and I was like ‘Are you kidding me? F—k!’”
She went on to explain that Donatella then told the Maid in Manhattan star that she wanted to celebrate by creating an entire collection inspired by the jungle print. So naturally, the designer asked if Lopez would walk out at the end — and she obliged.
“We knew it would be a fun moment but we did not know, just like the first time, that it would be like a thing,” the “On the Floor” singer said. “We didn’t know that it was so viral … It’s super cool, something to tell your kids who love computers and the internet and all that stuff.”
