BBC Homepage
  • Skip to content
  • Accessibility Help
  • Your account
  • Notifications
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
  • More menu
More menu
Search BBC
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
Close menu
BBC News
Menu
  • Home
  • InDepth
  • Israel-Gaza war
  • War in Ukraine
  • Climate
  • UK
  • World
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Culture
More
  • Tech
  • Science
  • Health
  • Family & Education
  • In Pictures
  • Newsbeat
  • BBC Verify
  • Disability
  • Trending

Why everyone is asking: What colour is this dress?'

  • Published
    27 February 2015
Share page
About sharing
A dress on sale for Comic reliefImage source, RoMAN ORIGINAlS
Image caption,

After the original photo, manufacturers Roman Originals sold a version of "The Dress" for Comic Relief

By BBC Trending
What's popular and why

The "what colour is this dress?" meme is both a strange illustration of the way our brains work, and a classic case of how it is big media organisations - rather than just ordinary people - that often make things go viral.

Seriously, what colour is this dress? Some see white and gold, others blue and black and others something else. Tens of millions of people have now shared their opinion online, generating one of the biggest social media conversations in recent memory.

The core scientific question is: why do people see the dress in different colours? Beau Lotto, a professor of neuroscience at University College London, says: "The brain has evolved not to see absolutes, but to see the difference between things." Because colours that appear in sunlight look different from those that appear under streetlights, for example, our brains have to focus on the relationship between colours, not the colours themselves. Lotto says we can "only speculate" about why some people see blue where others see white. It could be because some are focusing on the difference between the colours of the dress itself, some are looking at the difference between the dress and the background, and others are taking the colour of their computer monitor, and the room around it into account.

That's some of the the science, but it doesn't quite answer why the picture went viral at such a terrific speed. That story began just before a wedding held last weekend in the Hebrides, a group of islands just off Scotland, when the mother of the bride sent a picture to her daughter asking what she thought of the dress. The bride and groom both looked at the picture and each saw the image differently. They posted the image to Facebook, asking their friends to help settle the argument. One of them, Caitlin McNeill - also part of the wedding band - reposted the image to her Tumblr blog, external at around 20:00 on Thursday. "Guys please help me - is this dress white and gold, or blue and black? Me and my friends can't agree," she wrote. The post saw a flurry of activity, but she couldn't have predicted the scale of the ensuing debate.

Around three hours later someone at Buzzfeed picked up on the blog, reposting the picture, external and a snippet of the conversation, along with a poll asking readers what colours they saw. The article set the internet alight, and has now been viewed more than 24 million times.

A graph showing the popularity of the conversationImage source, Mass Intelligence

By monitoring the use of the phrase "white and gold" on Twitter, it's possible to get a rough idea of how the conversation developed. This graph shows the discussion picking up very slowly when the Tumblr blog was published at around 20:00. It wasn't until the Buzzfeed article was published just after 23:00 that use of the phrase exploded. At around 01:00, an associated hashtag - #thedress - emerged, and has maintained a consistent presence ever since.

So is this a story of social media empowering the individual, giving ordinary people access to a global audience? Not quite. Really, it was old-fashioned media competition that drove the viral trend. The dramatic spike in conversation took place only in the wake of the Buzzfeed article. Its popularity on that site prompted a string of copycat articles on the news sites belonging to more established brands, as media outlets bid to exploit the huge spike in web traffic. The dress is a classical optical illusion, and that's why people love it. But it was big brand publishers getting in on the act and writing about it - kind of like the blog post that you've just read - that made it go viral.

More about the viral web: Listen to our documentary 23 Amazing Reasons This radio Programme Will Change Your Life

Next story: Call for a 'heterosexual pride' day mocked in Brazil

You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, external, and find us on Facebook, external. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending.

More on this story

  • #TheDress - What's behind it all?

    • Published
      27 February 2015
    Roman Originals dress

Top stories

  • Families demand answers as Southport inquiry opens

    • Published
      1 hour ago
  • Poisoned water and scarred hills: BBC visits world's rare earths capital in China

  • Why Texas floods were so devastating

More to explore

  • How King Charles is helping to 'reinvigorate' the shaken UK-France friendship

    Index pic
  • 'PM to press Macron' and 'mushroom murders' trial

    The front pages of the Daily Mail and the Times
  • Poisoned water and scarred hills: BBC visits world's rare earths capital in China

    Large plumes of white smoke billow out of a large canyon in China
  • The doctor fighting for women's health on Ukraine's front line

    A doctor smiles as he takes a selfie with a woman patient inside a mobile medical unit. His hair is dyed the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag, and medical paraphernalia is in the background.
  • Did US government cuts contribute to the Texas tragedy?

    A boat on a river in Texas with four rescue workers on board
  • From India to Britain and back: The cartoonist who fought censors with a smile

    Abu cartoon
  • 'Everyone knows somebody affected': The small towns in shock after mushroom murders

    A sign for Korumburra General Cemetery, with headstones and hills in the background
  • 200 million year-old flying reptile species found

    The image is an artist's impression of the ancient winged reptile that scientists have discovered at a site that, 200 million years ago, was a riverbed. The image depicts a creature with a long, pointed jaw and wings folded in at its sides. It has its clawed feet submerged in the water of the river and appears to have caught a small amphibian in its mouth.
  • US Politics Unspun: Cut through the noise with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s newsletter

    Anthony Zurcher with Washington landmarks and red white and blue stripes
loading elsewhere stories

Most read

  1. 1

    Emergency alert to be sent to smartphones in UK test

  2. 2

    'PM to press Macron' and 'mushroom murders' trial

  3. 3

    US delays higher tariffs but announces new rates for some nations

  4. 4

    Workplace misconduct and discrimination NDAs to be banned

  5. 5

    Families demand answers as Southport inquiry opens

  6. 6

    How King Charles is helping to 'reinvigorate' the shaken UK-France friendship

  7. 7

    Trump upbeat on Gaza ceasefire talks as he hosts Netanyahu

  8. 8

    Manchester Airport brawl CCTV shown to jury

  9. 9

    Hosepipe ban to be introduced across Yorkshire

  10. 10

    The Salt Path author defends herself against claims she misled readers

BBC News Services

  • On your mobile
  • On smart speakers
  • Get news alerts
  • Contact BBC News

Best of the BBC

  • Love and fatherhood in noughties Brixton

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    Babyfather
  • Your new favourite offbeat, snappy US sitcom

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    St. Denis Medical
  • Step into the world of luxury holidays

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    Billion Dollar Playground
  • The inside story of the Live Aid concert

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    Live Aid at 40: When Rock 'n' Roll Took on the World
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
  • Terms of Use
  • About the BBC
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookies
  • Accessibility Help
  • Parental Guidance
  • Contact the BBC
  • Make an editorial complaint
  • BBC emails for you

Copyright © 2025 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.