Jennifer Lawrence is the latest celebrity to inspire a red carpet meme, but she's certainly not the first.
The award-winning actress wore a Dior Haute Couture gown to the 71st Annual Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, Jan. 12, and it didn't take long for the black and white design to make history. The look generated so much attention that people created homemade versions and posted their results online.
Arrow star Colton Haynes even got in on the fun by belting a bed sheet. "Had a blast tonight at the #GoldenGlobes (at my house)! Glad I could make y'all laugh. JLaw is my spirit animal," he tweeted. Lawrence's look was also compared to Ariel in Disney's The Little Mermaid.
The act of recreating the American Hustle star's look was later dubbed "Lawrencing." Naturally.
When Kim Kardashian was pregnant with North West in May 2013, she made headlines for wearing a floor-length, long-sleeved and gloved gown by Givenchy's Riccardo Tisci to the annual Met Gala. Some web users compared the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star's look to a couch, while others sniped that the mom-to-be looked like Robin Williams' character in 1993's Mrs. Doubtfire. The 62-year-old actor even shared a side-by-side comparison shot on Twitter and joked, "I think I wore it better!"
The designer came to Kardashian's defense, however, in a WWD interview the next month. "I have dressed many pregnant women in the past. People can say what they want. To me, pregnancy is the most beautiful thing in the world, and when you celebrate something, you give people flowers. I think she looked amazing. She was the most beautiful pregnant woman I dressed in my career," Tisci said.
Angelina Jolie was similarly mocked after she wore a strapless Atelier Versace gown to the 84th Annual Academy Awards in February 2012. Not long after the Oscar winner struck a seductive and confident pose that exposed the dress' thigh-high split, a new internet meme was born. A Twitter feed dubbed "Angie's Right Leg" was born, amassing more than 12,000 followers within just a few hours.
Simultaneously, The Descendants co-writer Jim Rash imitated Jolie's stance during his acceptance speech for the Best Adapted Screenplay award. Tumblr users Photoshopped the actress' leg-revealing pose, and Twitter users shared pictures of themselves recreating the movie star's stance.
Jolie, for her part, ignored the web phenomenon entirely. "I honestly didn't pay attention to it. You know what I mean? I don't watch those TV shows and if I go online and see something about myself, I don't click on it. And the people I surround myself with don't really talk about that kind of stuff," she told The Huffington Post. "I heard something, but I didn't pay any attention. It's as simple as being a woman picking a dress you like and having a night, and not really thinking about anything else."
Though Pippa Middleton and her bum nearly stole the spotlight at the royal wedding in April 2011, it was Prince William's cousin, Princess Beatrice, who was the butt of the joke. Her bow-like chapeau, designed by Philip Treacy, was likened to a toilet seat cover and became the source of several memes.
In May 2011, the fascinator was auctioned off on eBay. "I've been amazed by the amount of attention the hat has attracted," she told Gawker. "It's a wonderful opportunity to raise as much money as possible for two fantastic charities. I hope whoever wins the auction has as much fun with the hat as I have." It was sold for $131,341.47 and benefitted the UNICEF and Children in Crisis charities.
Aretha Franklin became a viral sensation in January 2009 after she performed at United States President Barack Obama's inaugural ceremony in Washington, D.C. She sang "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" wearing a crystal-studded hat that featured a large bow. "She's our regular customer and comes to us often. She actually had three to choose from for that day, but went with her second choice," milliner Luke Song told WWD. "It probably looked better on camera."
The hat was digitally added to a number of other people and animals' heads in the following months. The Queen of Soul addressed the hubbub in March 2009, telling The Daily Beast, "People were calling me from Europe! At first, I was calling them, looking for the hat, and then they were calling and writing about how much they loved it. That was one fabulous hat, and everybody liked it. I think it's because it was so stylish and gorgeous. The hat took on a life of its own. I understand that the hat has its own Facebook page. As a matter of fact, I went to the NAACP dinner in Detroit recently, and a young lady came to shake hands with me, and she had on the same hat, only it was white."
For Obama's second presidential inauguration in January 2013, Song was asked to make copies. "I had a lot of requests and orders for that particular hat—a replica of the inauguration hat. I know that there will be a lot of people in the audience wearing it as an homage to the last inauguration," he told ABC.
Which meme will live on for decades to come? Sound off in the comments below!