Is it white and gold, or is it black and blue? It is a controversy causing thousands of social media users from Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to argue over a simple dress. Some argue whether it is a white dress with gold lace, or whether it is a blue dress with black lace. The controversy however, is not about whether the dress is black and blue, or gold and white, but why everyone is seeing different colors while looking at the same picture.
The color of the dress is really determined by how our eyes and brain perceive it according to wired.com. As light hits and passes through our eyes, different wave lengths and frequencies determine what colors we see. As light is produced and hits our eyes, it strikes our retinas which are located in the back of the eye, where pigments start up neural connectors to the visual cortex, which is when humans see images. Within a blink of an eye, our brains will separate the light from specific items (such as the dress), to the real world.
Jay Neitz, a neuroscientist from the University of Washington, states, “Our visual system is supposed to throw away information about the illuminant and extract information about the actual reflectance,” continuing with, “But I’ve studied individual differences in color vision for 30 years, and this is one of the biggest individual differences I’ve ever seen.” He then confirms that he sees the dress as gold and white.
Many tests have been done at wired.com, attempting to white balance the photo, since the photo posted either has a high exposure, or possibly has a filter applied to it. Additionally, they have even printed out the image that was posted, and cut out a tiny section of the blue/white (depending how one’s brain perceives it) and went into a neutral room to look at it. In conclusion to everything, there is a right and wrong answer. Although originally Neitz stated he saw gold and white, after lots of examination, the white started to fade to blue. Neitz stated, “Most people will see the blue on the white background as blue,” and followed up with, “But on the black background some might see it as white.” But the real answer… the dress is black and blue.
Yes, the original dress can be purchased off of Romanoriginals.co.uk. The dress color options include, red, white, pink and blue, with a black lace. There is no white dress with gold lace. Additionally, the dress that was bought by the mother of the bride at a wedding, which names were not disclosed, who wore the dress and posted a group picture, clearly shows that the dress is black and blue. All in all, those who said the dress is black and blue are correct. Sorry for those who said it was white and gold.