Rachel Zoe stepped out in an updated version of Jennifer Lopez’s legendary Versace jungle dress for her Hamptons magazine cover party.
The stylist and “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star, 53, wore the plunging green leaf-print gown to the cover unveiling party on Wednesday night at The Hedges Inn in East Hampton. The event celebrated her appearance on the cover of Modern Luxury’s Hamptons magazine, where she also wore the iconic dress inside the glossy pages.
Zoe’s version of the gown was sourced from vintage purveyor Janet Mandell and featured notable modifications from the original. While the neckline remained deep, it stopped short of reaching her navel, unlike the pelvis-grazing cut that made Lopez’s 2000 Grammy Awards appearance historic. Zoe’s skirt was fully opaque and slit-free, a more conservative take than the sheer, open design that nearly exposed the singer’s legs.
“The things that feel luxurious to me now are the things that stand the test of time,” Zoe explained in her interview for the publication.
On the cover, the Bravo star plays with her beach waves and flashes layers upon layers of John Hardy jewelry. She also wore the green Versace dress within the glossy pages, sourced from vintage purveyor Janet Mandell.
“In the Hamptons, my uniform is caftans all day, every day,” she shared — and the unforgettable jungle gown seems to fit in quite effortlessly.
In the viral moment that launched both a dress and a technological revolution, Jennifer Lopez wore the original jungle print gown to the 42nd Grammy Awards on February 23, 2000. The tropical-print silk chiffon dress, designed by Donatella Versace for the house’s Spring/Summer 2000 collection, featured a neckline that plunged below her navel and was held together by a sparkly brooch, with a sheer skirt that opened at the front and back. The dress had already appeared on supermodel Amber Valletta on the runway, on Donatella Versace herself at the 1999 Met Gala, and on Geri Halliwell at the NRJ Music Awards weeks earlier, but it was Lopez who transformed it into a global phenomenon. The overwhelming volume of searches for images of Lopez in the dress directly led to the creation of Google Images, as then-Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt later confirmed. “At the time, it was the most popular search query we had ever seen,” Schmidt wrote in a 2015 essay. “As a result, Google Image Search was born.”
Zoe’s fashion moment comes as she settles into her new role on “RHOBH,” having joined the cast for Season 15. She announced her Bravo return in June on Instagram, posting a video where she declared, “It’s official. I’m coming back to Bravo.” Her Hamptons connection runs deep beyond magazine covers — she told castmates on the show that her now-estranged husband Rodger Berman proposed to her in the Hamptons after she confessed to a brief infidelity early in their relationship.
The original Versace jungle dress remains one of fashion’s most referenced pieces, with Lopez herself revisiting it for Versace’s Spring/Summer 2020 runway show during Milan Fashion Week and again for a “Saturday Night Live” appearance that December. The dress now hangs in Lopez’s personal wardrobe after years on display at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles.
Zoe’s signature blond locks cascaded down her shoulders in loose waves that reached her hips at Wednesday’s party, completing a look that bridged two decades of pop culture history.
Hamptons Fashion Week will host its white party runway event in Southampton on August 30.