Blue and black OR white and gold – what colour is the dress? and why it is starting a war of opinion?

So I was handed a image of a dress which appeared blue and black when I viewed it initially which seemed normal because how many different colours can people see from one dress? Surely we aren’t all colourblind? But when an adult in the room saw it she thought it was white and gold; say what? Automatically I thought this person needed to visit an optometrist but little did I know that there was some genuine reason behind this preposterous belief.

On February the 26th, a picture of a cocktail dress originally uploaded to the blog Tumblr swept the internet and managed to divide the population over a simple burning question: ‘what colour is the dress’? Some viewers saw gold and white while others insisted the dress is blue and black. Some people claimed they could see either interpretation, but only one of them at a time. It made people stop and ask, “what exactly is going on with this image?” The simple answer is that the picture is an optical illusion and might I add a bloody good one. Apparently objects reflect light at certain wavelengths, or colours, and the human brain determines the colour of an object by taking in its reflected light. But this perception can be thrown off balance by the colour of nearby objects. With the photo of this beautiful Scottish dress, the surrounding colours are so muddled that the brain isn’t sure what to make of the dress itself. Scientists have pointed out, a digital analysis of the dress photo incredibly shows that one of the spots of black trim is actually orange in the photo, unbelievable! Presenting that, people who perceive the surrounding area as dark are likely to see the blue in the dress as white and the black colours as gold. It all just depends on the manner that the brain perceives and processes colour (say if you’re viewing the image in a dark room whilst about to sleep). So when I viewed the image whilst I was nodding off at night and I observed the image as white and gold. I felt almost as stupid as the lady who said ‘she was so excited to find out whether she’d be an aunt or uncle’ before her nephew was born! But the whole argument is dependent on how you view or interpret the colours. If you think the dress is in shadow, your brain may remove the blue cast and perceive the dress as being white and gold. If the photograph showed more of the room, or if skin tones were visible, there might have been more clues about the ambient light. If you think the dress is being washed out by bright light, your brain may perceive the dress as a darker blue and black. So there you have it you aren’t colour blind after all, just plain stupid.

This fight is about more than just social media—it’s about primal biology and the way human eyes and brains have evolved to see colour in a sunlit world. But we mustn’t forget the dress is courtesy of Scotland, a country which has always went under the radar, and so what, the image captured at a a Scottish wedding big deal. Let’s not forget the undermining power of this small bullied nation. Overall Scotland should be credited for perhaps the most talked about optical illusion of this generation. But I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that this isn’t the only time Scotland has went under the radar and unrewarded. Scotland are the proud producers of Britain’s greatest tennis player, box office smash ‘Braveheart’, Chicken Tikka Masala, David Cameron, decimal fractions, deep-fried Mars bars, David Tennant- the best Doctor Who of all time, Dolly the Sheep, the design of the flushing toilet, Gin and Tonic, Golf, the Loch Ness Monster and yes McDonald’s the greatest Scottish restaurant on Earth. Despite all of this at least we can all agree on one thing: the people who see the dress as white are utterly and completely wrong and that Scotland should be recognised more often so next time you flush your toilet hashtag #thankyouscotland. 

Michael Serpell over and out.

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Written 28/2/15 in Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School’s student magazine ‘The Buzz’ Issue 1 in the section titled ‘The Snake Pit’ written by Michael Serpell.