The Dress: A Decade of Viral Division and Scientific Discovery

In the simpler days of late February 2015, before the reign of algorithmic complexity and ever-evolving social media landscapes, the internet was captivated by a seemingly simple question, one that ignited fierce debates and continues to linger in the collective digital memory. It was the era of Tumblr’s reign and Twitter’s unadulterated form, a time when the concept of "going viral" felt both more frequent and more universally understood. And nothing that year achieved viral status quite like "the dress."

The saga began with a wedding. As Grace Bleasdale and Keir Johnston prepared for their wedding in Scotland, the mother-of-the-bride, Cecilia Bleasdale, sent her daughter a picture of the dress she intended to wear. A simple gesture, yet it sparked a chain of events that would grip the world. Grace and her mother found themselves in disagreement: what colors were actually in the dress? To settle the debate, Grace posted the image on Facebook. From there, a friend shared it on Tumblr, urging users to weigh in on the central question: was the dress blue and black or white and gold?

The question quickly transcended social media platforms, as Buzzfeed Community Manager Cates Holderness turned the query into a poll that captured the attention of over 16 million people. Even celebrity figures like Ellen DeGeneres joined the fray, adding fuel to the already raging fire of public discussion. The internet was ablaze with opinions, arguments erupting on timelines and in comment sections.

A decade later, the mere mention of "the dress" is enough to reignite the debate. Even within the newsroom of USA TODAY, asking the infamous question recently stirred up disagreement. But beyond the viral sensation and the passionate arguments, the dress became an unexpected catalyst for scientific advancement. Every click on a poll, every Tweet, every dinner table argument contributed, in some small way, to a greater understanding of human color perception.

The mystery, of course, does have a definitive answer. Roman Originals, the retailer selling the dress, officially declared that the dress was, in reality, blue and black. The announcement, made via Twitter on February 27, 2015, confirmed what half the internet already believed. The sudden surge in attention caused the brand to struggle to keep the dress in stock. Capitalizing on the dress’s notoriety, Roman Originals created a one-off white and gold version, auctioned to benefit Comic Relief, a U.K. organization dedicated to combating poverty.

Now simply known as Roman, the clothing retailer still embraces its role in internet history. On the 10th anniversary of the initial viral surge, the brand created a dedicated webpage, identifying February 26, 2015, as the official day the internet broke. Roman reports that #dressgate generated 7.6 million Tweets, with celebrity figures like Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian contributing to the digital buzz.

The brand estimates that the dress was viewed 73 million times across various social media platforms, leading to the dress selling out in just 34 minutes. Surprisingly, Roman states that 70% of those who initially posted about the dress perceived it as white and gold, rather than its actual blue and black.

"A decade ago, The Dress broke the internet, sparked debates at dinner tables, and changed the way we see colour—literally!" said Michele Bastock, Roman Brand Director, in a statement to USA TODAY. "As the original retailers of the viral sensation, we’re still in awe of how one dress captivated the world. Whether you saw blue and black or white and gold, one thing is certain: #TheDress remains an icon. Here’s to 10 years of optical illusions, internet magic, and unforgettable moments!"

Bastock’s statement subtly emphasizes a crucial point: even seemingly frivolous internet trends can have unexpected consequences. If anyone tries to dismiss the importance of keeping up with these trends, they might miss witnessing the next groundbreaking scientific discovery.

Neuroscientist Bevil Conway, a senior investigator at the National Eye Institute, was among the first in the scientific community to delve into the underlying reasons for the illusion. Over the past decade, he notes, scientists have made significant progress in understanding how our brains interpret color. The dress was pivotal in that process. "The dress has been enormously instructive for science, the scientific understanding of how color works," Conway told USA TODAY. "It really did emphatically teach us that the brain contributes a lot of the heavy lifting to interpreting the light that enters the eye and telling us what color it is [we’re seeing]."

When the dress went viral, Conway was inundated with press requests after giving an interview to Wired. In his conversation with Wired’s Adam Rogers, he initially theorized that the phenomenon stemmed from brain function, not the eyes themselves. "At first, it was hotly contested and debated," Conway recalls.

Since then, a wealth of scientific evidence has emerged, supporting the theory. Numerous papers have been published, and a general consensus has formed within the scientific community. One prevailing explanation centers on the idea that color perception relies on automatic assumptions the brain makes about the color of light. "Now that is consensus, people believe that is the explanation for the dress – how the brain makes assumptions about the lighting. It’s not about rods and cones, it’s not about whether or not you’re colorblind, it’s not about anything going on in the eyeball, it’s the brain."

As we navigate the world, the color of the light source entering our eyes constantly changes, depending on whether we are under a cool blue sky or in warm direct sunlight. Our brains perform color correction, ensuring that the colors we perceive remain consistent even under different lighting conditions.

When the brain lacks sufficient information, it fills in the gaps. "This particular image [of the dress] doesn’t have enough cues in the image itself to tell you what the color of the light is, so you have to rely on assumptions that your brain is making," Conway explains. "Some people assume that the color is warm, so they subtract some orange from the dress and see blue and black, but some people assume the light is cool colored, more blue sky, so they subtract the blue color."

Why some brains are more likely to make one assumption over another remains unknown. However, Conway suggests a possible link to the amount of time spent under blue sky versus incandescent light.

Information and exposure also play a significant role in shaping our perceptions, which explains why over time, more people have come to see the dress one way or another.

"When the dress first came out, the split was about 50/50 for blue and black versus white and gold," said Conway. "Now, 10 years later, the fact that the garment is black and blue in reality has become common knowledge, effectively changing how the majority of people perceive the once-divisive image. Most people now know that the actual dress is blue and black, so that knowledge has changed how you see the image," said Conway. "So in real-time, we have experienced in our lifetimes, the impact of knowledge on color perception."

Even if you see the dress one way, you can still change your mind, Conway explains. Many people can "flip" their perception, allowing them to see either set of colors. This is because the image is bistable, similar to the Rubin vase illusion.

The Rubin vase, also known as the vase-face optical illusion, can be perceived either as the black profiles of two faces or as a white vase. Depending on where one focuses, the image can "flip" between the two interpretations. The duck-rabbit illusion and the Necker cube are other examples. Initially, such illusions were believed to elicit fixed perceptions, but now it has been shown that with practice and persistent viewing, almost everyone can flip.

"We have data showing that the proportion of people that can flip has increased over time," Conway stated.

The dress has made significant contributions to the science of color perception and has helped shed light on a question posed by Immanuel Kant. In the 18th century, Kant theorized that humans can never truly know if they perceive color identically because they cannot see through another’s eyes. While we cannot experience color exactly as others do, language allows us to effectively communicate our perceptions. The dress, in this sense, becomes "the most powerful example that we all do see color very similarly because when it fails, when we don’t see color similarly, it creates an all-mighty viral color fiasco like this," Conway concluded. "Under most circumstances, we’re pretty good at seeing it the same way."

The dress phenomenon may be seen as a reminder that even in a world seemingly obsessed with division, our shared experiences of perception far outweigh our differences.