The Dress
You might remember it as blue black white gold dress
A possible image is known, but ViralWorld has not verified that it is the right one.
Most viral ever8 of 32
2015·The platform era
A washed-out phone photograph of a lace dress that some people see as blue and black and others as white and gold.
At a glanceThe facts
- Remembered as
- blue black white gold dress
- Spread in
- 2015
- Began as
- A photograph
- Format
- Photograph
- Photographed by
- Cecilia Bleasdale, at Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet, a week before her daughter’s wedding
- Posted by
- Caitlin McNeill, who reposted it to Tumblr
- Who or what it shows
- A royal blue Lace Bodycon Dress with black lace, by Roman Originals
- Origin
- Not an upload originally
- Available
- Not held by ViralWorld
Why it matteredWhat changed
For one night the internet argued about something nobody could be talked out of, because both sides were reporting what they saw. It sent vision scientists to the laboratory, and several published studies of it.
TimelineIn order
- Made
Cecilia Bleasdale photographs the dress in a shop, about a week before her daughter Grace is married on the Scottish island of Colonsay. Grace posts the picture to Facebook.1
- Posted
Caitlin McNeill reposts the photograph to Tumblr.1
- Took off
BuzzFeed publishes “The Dress Is Blue And Black”. Its Tumblr page peaks at 673,000 people on it at once, and the hashtag reaches eleven thousand tweets a minute.1
- Mainstream
Roman Originals, having sold out of the dress within half an hour, announces it will make a single white-and-gold one to auction for Comic Relief.1
- Corrected
Bleasdale and her partner tell the BBC they were “completely left out from the story”.1
What people misrememberSet straight
Commonly remembered asThe dress is white and gold, or changes colour.
ActuallyIt is royal blue with black lace. The photograph is overexposed with poor white balance, and photographed properly the dress is indisputably blue and black.1
Commonly remembered asThe person who posted it took the photograph.
ActuallyCaitlin McNeill reposted it. The photograph was taken by the bride’s mother, Cecilia Bleasdale.1
LegacyWhat it left behind
- A study of 1,400 people in Current Biology found 57 per cent saw blue and black, 30 per cent white and gold and 11 per cent blue and brown.1
- The researchers Bevil Conway and Jay Neitz attribute the split to how the brain discounts the colour of daylight, though there is no consensus.1
- A later study in the Journal of Vision found that people who get up early were more likely to see white and gold.1
More from hereIn this collection
Why it is here: something the internet still knows by name · a moment that changed what the internet did next · it got out of its own corner of the internet fast · still being watched and quoted years later
This began as a photograph, not as a video.
Where it came fromWhat we know
There is no original upload to identify: this did not begin as one. What it began as is recorded here, and what is shown is a later copy.
Nothing here is claimed to be the first publication of this Moment, because the first publication was not an upload. This began as a photograph, not as a video.
Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.
- Where
- Known on Tumblr.
SourcesWhat was read
Sources last read on . That date is about the history on this page. Whether the media still plays is checked separately and can change any day. How ViralWorld documents things