JLo Hasn’t Aged Since 2005, But How Did Her 13-Year-Old NYFW Collection Fare?
Jennifer Lopez walks the runway at the Jennifer Lopez Fall 2005 show during the Olympus Fashion Week in Bryant Park February 11, 2005 in New York City. Photo by Carlo Allegrir/Getty Images
The early to mid 2000s were filled with questionable fashion. It’s also the same time period when Jennifer Lopez decided to make her debut in the industry. In 2001, Lopez, who had already released two albums (On the 6 and J.Lo), starred in a dozen movies (Selena, Anaconda, The Wedding Planner, and The Cell to name a few), and fully embraced the J.Lo moniker, launched her first fashion line, J.Lo by Jennifer Lopez. And though that line is worth a revisit, it’s her 2005 Sweetface line that commands our attention. Four years after she got into the designing world, she showed at New York Fashion Week for the first time.
Back when the twice-a-year shows took place in Bryant Park, J.Lo made her debut at NYFW with a silvery runway. It was a huge production, with MTV filming the presentation for a documentary, Jennifer Lopez: Beyond the Runway. The catwalk resembled J.Lo’s life, from her days in the Bronx (a fire escape), to her breakout moment on the show In Living Color (turntables), to a stretch limo (her Hollywood career). And of course, as Vogue reported, there were wind and smoke machines.
At the time, Andy Hilfiger – Tommy Hilfiger’s brother and the co-founder of Lopez’s Sweetface Fashion company – said the brand was a departure from her J.Lo by Jennifer Lopez line. It’s a “more intellectual, more aspirational collection than J.Lo by Jennifer Lopez,” he said, according to The Guardian. “Less sporty, more suede.”
That means she said goodbye to tracksuits (which had fallen out of favor) and added lambskin, fox, woven mink, and sable. She even got Naomi Campbell – who wore a white chiffon jumpsuit paired with a white mink – to close out the show.
The show was a surprise to those who had grown accustomed to seeing the multi hyphenate celebrity’s J.Lo by Jennifer Lopez line. But 12 years later, how well did the fashion hold up? We decided to investigate. Check out five pieces from her debut collection and whether they are 2018 friendly (based on a scale of five high heel emojis), as judged by us.