Jennifer Lopez surprises guests at Milan Fashion Week in famous Versace dress

Singer’s jungle-inspired gown inspired advent of Google Images

(AFP/Getty Images)

Jennifer Lopez gave the fashion pack a substantial dose of nostalgia at Milan Fashion Week on Friday by revisiting one of her most famous looks: the green gown she wore to the Grammys in 2000.

To the delight of the front row, the singer closed the Versace show wearing an updated version of the plunging jungle-inspired dress, which featured a billowing train and side cutouts.

For the grand finale, J. Lo walked down the runway arm in arm with Donatella Versace herself, prompting rapturous applause from those in attendance.

But the gown is not just sartorially significant. In fact, it’s the reason we now have Google Images.

In 2015, former Google CEO and executive chairman Eric Schmidt wrote an essay on Project Syndicate explaining how the singer’s dress inspired the invention.

“People wanted more than just text,” he wrote. “This first became apparent after the 2000 Grammy Awards, where Jennifer Lopez wore a green dress that, well, caught the world’s attention.

“At the time, it was the most popular search query we had ever seen. But we had no surefire way of getting users exactly what they wanted: J ­Lo wearing that dress. Google Image Search was born.”

Versace paid homage to the gown's links to Google towards the end of its show. After the final group of models from the designer's spring/summer 2020 show left the runway, the lights down to reveal a Google Image search box flashing on screens in front of the guests.

A voiceover said “Okay Google, show me images of the Versace jungle dress”, prompting old photographs of the gown to pop up.

“Okay Google, show me the real jungle dress,” the voiceover continued, prompting Lopez herself to appear. It was quite the fashion week finale.