The actual dress was black and blue. The confusion came from how lighting and color perception tricked people's brains, making some see it as white and gold. It became a viral example What color is the dress? Why do some people see blue and black and some people see gold and white when looking at a single image of a dress? : r askscience In 2015, a photograph of a dress went viral, dividing viewers over whether its colors were blue and black or white and gold. This optical illusion highlighted differences in human color perception The Dress: An Interactive Classroom Experiment by Andrew Robinson Precarious Physicist Medium