 |
| U MAD BRO? The dress is a featured article here on Teh Meme Wiki |
Description[]
The dress, also known as What Color Is This Dress?, and in hashtag as #TheDress, is an image of a dress, originally manufactured by the UK fashion company Roman Originals, which reported a surge in sales and eventually produced a one-off version in white and gold sold for charity.
The phenomenon originated in a photograph of a dress posted on the social networking service Facebook. The dress was black and blue, but the conditions of the photograph caused many to perceive it as white and gold, creating debate. Within a week, more than ten million tweets had mentioned the dress. After some time, it was revealed that depending on the angle light hit it, the color changed as blue and black. Even now, people are amazed by its rare effect.
Origin[]
On February 2015, about a week before the wedding of Grace and Keir Johnston, natives of Colonsay, Scotland, the bride's mother, Cecilia Bleasdale, took a photograph of a dress at Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet north of Chester, England. Bleasdale intended to wear the dress at the wedding and sent the photograph to Grace. The dress was colored blue with black lace. However, Grace told her mother she perceived it in the photograph as white with gold lace. After Grace posted the photograph on Facebook, her friends also disagreed; some saw it as white with gold, while others saw it as blue with black. For a week, the debate became well known in Colonsay, a small island community in Scotland.
On the day of the wedding, Caitlin McNeill, a friend of the bride and groom, performed with her band at the wedding. Even after seeing that the dress was "obviously blue and black", in reality, the musicians remained preoccupied by the photograph. They said they almost failed to make it on stage because they were caught up discussing the dress. A few days later, on 26 February, McNeill reposted the image to her blog on Tumblr, creating further public discussion surrounding the image
A day earlier, on February 25th, 2015, Tumblr user swiked posted a photograph of a dress asking the science side of Tumblr to help identify its colors, noting that her friends were torn between it being white and gold or black and blue. Within 48 hours, the post gained over 400,000 notes.
Web usage[]
On February 26th, BuzzFeed posted a poll asking readers to decide what color the dress really was. Within 10 hours the poll received more than 1.8 million votes, with 72% selecting "white and gold".
Later that evening, BuzzFeed published a second post revealing that the dress was actually blue after finding it available for purchase on United Kingdom-based online retailer Roman Originals, which listed it as a "Royal-Blue Lace Detail Bodycon Dress".
On February 27th, Redditor AskScienceModerator submitted a post about the dress to the /r/AskScience subreddit, where experts from a variety of fields offered explanations of the color perception phenomenon. In the first 12 hours, it gained over 2700 votes (84% upvoted), 3,600 comments and reached the front page of the social news site. Meanwhile, Redditor Sooprman posted an image of the Black and Blue Power Rangers to /r/Funny with the accompanying caption "The White Ranger / and Gold Ranger," garnering upwards of 3,000 votes (86% upvoted) in the first five hours.
On the same day, XKCD webcomic author, Randall Munroe, used his Friday update to illustrate the differences that background lighting effects had on the perception of the dress' color and included the following statement as the comic's alt-text: "This white-balance illusion hit so hard because it felt like someone had been playing through the Monty Hall scenario and opened their chosen door, only to find there was unexpectedly disagreement over whether the thing they'd revealed was a goat or a car."
In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the dress debate, including Gawker, Wired, CNBC, Business Insider, Mashable and Time. Several celebrities also commented on the dress on Twitter including Taylor Swift, Melissa Joan Hart, Kim Kardashian, Anna Kendrick, Ellen DeGeneres and many more.
On Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, users chimed in on the color of the garment using the hashtag "#TheDress," with the opposing sides using the accompanying hashtags "#WhiteAndGold" or "#BlackAndBlue." Within 12 hours, #TheDress had reached over 400,000 tweets, and #WhiteAndGold lead with a ratio of 3:1 tweets over #BlackAndBlue. By the end of 24 hours, tweets containing #TheDress had jumped to over 1.2 million while the competing sides maintained a similar ratio.
2023 Twitter Resurgence[]
On February 26th, 2023, one day after the eight-year anniversary of the original dress post, Twitter user MUNCHRIH tweeted an image of the same dress halfway in the sunlight and half in the shade, showing the two variants discussed in the initial internet debate. Over the course of 24 hours, the tweet received over 21.1 million views, 216,000 likes, 16,000 retweets and 11,000 quote retweets, subsequently going viral and causing a resurgence in "Dressgate" that day.
Events[]
#StopAbuseAgainstWomen Twitter Ad[]
On March 6th, 2015, the Twitter feed for the South African branch of The Salvation Army posted an advertisement made by the creative agency Ireland/Davenport as part a "#StopAbuseAgainstWomen" campaign, which featured a battered woman wearing a white and gold dress with the caption "Why is it so hard / to see black and blue" (shown below). In less than 24 hours, the tweet gained over 7,300 retweets and 3,200 favorites.
That morning, ABC News published an interview with Ireland/Davenport creative director Wihan Meerhloz, who stated that the agency was attempting to use the memes popularity to raise awareness about violence against women:
"We wanted to take advantage of the hype of the meme to spread awareness for something important. Our creative team brainstormed ways to send a greater message about overlooked violence against women using the dress."
Meanwhile, Redditor DavidTheHumanzee posted the tweet to the /r/AdPorn subreddit, where it gathered upwards of 400 votes (87% upvoted) in the first seven hours. In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the ad, including The Guardian, The Huffington Post, The Washington Post and The Daily Dot.
Arrest Of Keir Johnston[]
In July of 2023, Keir Johnston, the man who purchased The Dress, was arrested for attempting to murder his wife Grace Johnston after years of violent behavior, including strangling her. On May 13th, 2024, he pled guilty to the charges.
Scientific explanation[]
Many experts have cited the color constancy feature of the human color perception system, which attempts to make colors appear consistent under varying types of illumination, as being responsible for the different colors identified in the photograph. If the viewer assumes a white illuminant, the dress appears blue and black, but if a blue illuminant is assumed, the dress appears white and gold.
Similar memes[]
What Color Is This Purse?[]
Echoes of #TheDress occurred on October 4th, 2016, when @whyofcorso posted a picture of a Kate Spade purse she had just bought.
User @Mr_Bingo_Little commented "White. Daring." to which @whyofcorso replied that the bag was blue, sparking discussion on whether the bag is white or blue. Though the bag is confirmed to be "mystic blue," debate ensued as Twitter users argued and made jokes about the color of the bag. The controversy became a Twitter moment the next day. That day, it was covered by The Daily Dot and Mic.
Motion 2 Strike FEAR @Motion ToStrike Follow @whyofcorso that bag is whiter than an improv show audience RETWEETSU 158 4:01 PM-4 Oct 2016 LIKES 997 158997 scheduled content @case face Follow @whyofcorso this is a nice white purse, corso RETWEETS LIKES 18 140 4:31 PM-4 Oct 2016 18140 Sarah Orsborn Follow @erniebufflo @delphoxglove @whyofcorso I think the purse mystery has to do with the way the phone corrected the white balance of the pic. RETWEETS LIKES 10 116 4:49 PM-4 Oct 2016 10116
Yanny or Laurel[]
Yanny or Laurel refers to the debate surrounding an audio clip of a voice saying a word. Some people claim they hear the word "Yanny" and others the word "Laurel." The debate about the clip spread in a similar fashion to #TheDress.
External references[]
- Tumblr (via Wayback Machine) – swiked: guys please help me
- Buzzfeed – What Colors Are This Dress?
- Gawker – What Color Is This Goddamn Dress?
- WIRED – The Science on The Dress Color
- CNBC – The Dress That Broke The Internet
- Business Insider – The internet is losing its composure over this dress that might be white and gold or black and blue
- Buzzfeed – We May Have Found The “Which Color Is This Dress?” And It’s BLUE
- Roman Originals Website Product Page for The Dress – Royal-Blue Lace Detail Bodycon Dress
- Twitter (via Wayback Machine) – @taylorswift13 – 8:14 PM – 26 Feb 2015
- Instagram – @melissajoanhart – The Dress
- Twitter – @KimKardashian – 10:41 PM – 26 Feb 2015
- Twitter – @AnnaKendrick47 – 9:52 PM – 26 Feb 2015
- Twitter- @TheEllenShow – 8:04 PM – 26 Feb 2015
- Pop Sugar – Celebrities on #TheDress
- Reddit – /r/AskScience/ – What color is the dress? Why do some…
- Reddit – /r/funny/ – The new White and Gold Power Rangers
- Mashable – What color is this dress
- Time – Everyone on the Internet Wants to Know What Color This Dress Is
- Wikipedia – Color Constancy
- Reddit – color constancy
- XKCD – Dress Color
- Twitter – @SalvationArmySA
- ABC News – The Dress Illusion Challenges Violence Against Women in Salvation Army PSA
- Reddit – The Salvation Army uses the dress meme
- The Guardian – The Dress meme adapted for #StopAbuseAgainstWomen ad
- The Huffington Post – Salvation Army Uses #TheDress
- Washington Post – Salvation Army puts #thedress in a new light
- Daily Dot – The Salvation Army used #TheDress
- Twitter (via Wayback Machine) – @totallymendes
- Inside Science – The Science Behind #TheShoe
- Twitter – #TheShoe
- Topsy – #TheShoe
- Twitter – @whyofcorso
- Twitter – @whyofcorso
- Kate Spade – cedar street hayden
- Twitter – Need another 'The Dress'? Then what color is this purse?
- The Daily Dot – This purse is definitely not white, but don't tell Twitter that
- Mic – What color is this bag? The internet is divided on if it's blue or white.
- Twitter – MUNCHRIH
- MoneyControl – Man behind viral blue-black/white-gold dress pleads guilty to strangling wife
- Know Your Meme - The Dress / What Color Is This Dress?