Jennifer Lopez Will Receive the 2019 CFDA Fashion Icon Award

This morning, the Council of Fashion Designers of America announced Jennifer Lopez as this year’s recipient of the Fashion Icon award at the 2019 CFDA Awards. The multidisciplinary joins the ranks of Naomi Campbell, Pharrell, and Rihanna in receiving this honor. Lopez will be the last Fashion Icon named under current CFDA Diane Von Furstenberg before she is succeeded by Tom Ford.

From a Fly Girl to Vogue cover star, Lopez has cemented her mark as a style icon by embracing the world of high fashion while remaining authentic to her Bronx roots. Lopez’s status as a pop culture phenomenon is unquestionable. She became the first person to have a number one film and album at the same time, was once one half of the now infamous “Bennifer” and before Kim Kardashian made headlines for her backside, JLO’s was so famous that rumors circulated for almost a decade that it was insured for 10 million dollars.

At the start of the new millennium, Lopez became the catalyst for Google to create what we now know as Google Images according to their Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt. Her green low plunging Spring Summer 2000 Versace dress that she famously wore to the 2000s Grammys got so many searches that the company decided to create an avenue solely for imagery. Lopez has counted Donatella Versace as a close friend since the 1999 Met Gala and continues to be one of the most frequent wearers of the brand on red carpets.

While we have seen Lopez evolve into this glamorous red carpet fixture, often championing designers: Valentino, Marchesa, Elie Saab, Giambattista Valli, the singer alongside Lil Kim and Kimora Lee Simmons was a pioneer in popularizing the ghetto fabulous aesthetic. Who could forget her pink Juicy Couture skirt and hoodie in the “I’m Real (Remix) ft. Ja Rule”? Or her all cream skully cap, tank top, and low rise cargo capris in “Jenny From the Block”? Her relationship with Sean Combs saw the starlet wearing a lot of Sean John (see her all-white bedazzled Sean John ensemble at the VMA’s in 2000), and if there was a puffer coat with a fur-lined trim, it wouldn’t be rare to see JLO rocking on with a midriff top underneath. Accessories were meant to be ostentatious, the more thick enamel gold bangles, nameplates and hoop earrings the merrier.