Revision 164379977 of "Benutzer:Versionen/The dress" on dewiki

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2016}}
{{EngvarB|date=May 2016}}
{{Infobox clothing item
| title         = The Dress
| image_file    = The Dress (viral phenomenon).png
| caption       = The original picture of "the dress"
| designer      = Roman Originals<ref name="designer">{{cite web |url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2971409/What-color-dress-White-gold-blue-black.html |title=The optical illusion dress that's divided the internet: Celebrities join fierce debate over whether this dress is white and gold or blue and black... so which colors do YOU see? |work=[[Daily Mail]] |last=Spargo |first=Chris |date=27 February 2015 |accessdate=27 February 2015}}</ref>
| material     =[[Lace]]<ref name="material">{{cite web |url=http://www.romanoriginals.co.uk/invt/70931?colour=Royal-Blue |accessdate=27 February 2015 |title=Lace Detail Bodycon Dress}}</ref>
}}

'''The Dress''' is a photo that became a [[Viral phenomenon|viral]] [[Internet meme|meme]] on 26 February 2015, when viewers disagreed over whether the item of clothing depicted was black and blue, or white and gold. The phenomenon revealed differences in human [[color vision|colour perception]] which have been the subject of ongoing scientific investigation in [[neuroscience]] and [[vision science]], with a number of papers published in peer-reviewed science journals.<ref name=lafer-sousa>{{cite journal |journal=Current Biology |title=Striking individual differences in color perception uncovered by 'the dress' photograph |author1=Rosa Lafer-Sousa |author2=Katherine L. Hermann |author3=Bevil R. Conway |date=29 June 2015 |url=http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(15)00535-7 |volume=25 |issue=13 |pages=R545–R546 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2015.04.053 |access-date=30 December 2015}}</ref><ref name=gegenfurtner>{{cite journal |journal=Current Biology |title=The many colours of 'the dress' |author1=Karl R. Gegenfurtner |author2=Marina Bloj |author3=Matteo Toscani |date=29 June 2015 |url=http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(15)00494-7 |volume=25 |issue=13 |pages=R543–R544 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2015.04.043 |access-date=30 December 2015}}</ref><ref name=winkler>{{cite journal |journal=Current Biology |title=Asymmetries in blue–yellow color perception and in the color of 'the dress' |author1=Alissa D. Winkler |author2=Lothar Spillmann |author3=John S. Werner |author4=Michael A. Webster |date=29 June 2015 |url=http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(15)00542-4 |volume=25 |issue=13 |pages=R547–R548 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2015.05.004 |access-date=30 December 2015}}</ref> Disagreement over the colours was termed '''Dressgate'''.<ref name=smh-dressgate>{{cite web |title=#Dressgate: The white and gold dress making our mind work until it's black and blue |url=http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/fashion/dressgate-the-white-and-gold-dress-making-our-mind-work-until-its-black-and-blue-20150227-13qqrc.html |website=The Sydney Morning Herald |accessdate=27 February 2015}}</ref>

The meme originated from a washed-out photograph of a [[dress]] posted on the [[social networking service]] [[Tumblr]], and a dispute over whether the dress pictured was blue and black, or white and gold.<ref name="insider">{{cite web |url=http://www.businessinsider.com/tattoo-of-the-dress-2015-3?op=1 |title=A man has tattooed the color-changing dress on his leg |work=[[Business Insider]] |publisher=Business Insider Inc. |date=2 March 2015 |accessdate=11 March 2015 |author=Moss, Caroline}}</ref> In the first week after the surfacing of the image alone, more than 10 million tweets mentioned the dress, using [[hashtag]]s such as #thedress, #whiteandgold and #blackandblue.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bustle.com/articles/66892-what-colors-are-this-dress-white-gold-or-black-blue-the-internet-is-going |title=What Colors Are This Dress? White & Gold or Black & Blue? The Internet Is Going Insane Trying To Find Out – PHOTO |first=Anna |last=Klassen |publisher=Bustle |date=26 February 2015 |accessdate=27 February 2015}}</ref>

Although the actual colour of the dress was confirmed to be blue and black,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/news/the-dress-actual-colour-brand-and-price-details-revealed-10074686.html |title=The blue and black (or white and gold) dress: Actual colour, brand, and price details revealed |date=27 February 2015 |work=The Independent |accessdate=10 May 2015}}</ref><ref name=bbcoptical>{{cite web |title=Optical illusion: Dress color debate goes global |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-31656935 |publisher=BBC |accessdate=28 February 2015}}</ref> the image prompted discussions surrounding the matter across various platforms, with users discussing their opinions on the colour and why they perceived the dress as being a certain colour.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/27/colour-dress-optical-illusion-social-media |title=Why do we care about the colour of the dress? |date=27 February 2015 |work=The Guardian |accessdate=28 May 2015}}</ref>

At the same time, members of the scientific community began to investigate the photo for fresh insights into human [[color vision|colour vision]].<ref name=wired-science /> A 2015 scientific study of 1,400 respondents found that 57% saw the dress as blue and black; 30% saw it as white and gold; 10% saw it as blue and brown; and 10% could switch between any of the colour combinations.<ref name=lafer-sousa/> A small number saw it as blue and gold. Women and older people disproportionately saw the dress as white and gold. The researchers further found that if the dress was shown in artificial yellow-coloured lighting almost all respondents saw the dress as blue and black, while they saw it as white and gold if the simulated lighting had a blue bias.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/may/14/thedress-have-researchers-solved-the-mystery-of-its-colour |title=#TheDress: have researchers solved the mystery of its colour? |first=Ian|last=Sample |work=The Guardian}}</ref>

The dress itself, which was identified as a product of the retailer Roman Originals, experienced a major surge in sales as a result of the meme.<ref name=nydn-romanoriginals/>

==Origin==
About a week before the wedding of Scottish couple Grace and Keir Johnston of [[Colonsay]], Grace's mother, Cecilia Bleasdale, and Cecilia's partner, Paul Jinks, took a photograph of the dress she planned to wear to the wedding. Cecilia, Grace, Paul, and Keir then disagreed over the colour of the dress in the photograph. The bride posted the image on [[Facebook]], and her friends also disagreed over the colour; some saw it as white with gold lace while others saw it as blue with black lace.<ref name=wp-insidestory/><ref name=buzzfeed-blueandblack/> For a period of weeks, the debate became well known in Colonsay, a small island community.<ref name="etonline.com">{{Cite web|url=http://www.etonline.com/news/160575_ellen_degeneres_settles_the_great_dress_debate_once_and_for_all/|title=Ellen DeGeneres Settles the Great Dress Debate Once and For All!|website=Entertainment Tonight|access-date=20 March 2016}}</ref>

On the day of the wedding, Ceitlin McNeill, a friend of the bride and groom and a member of the [[Scottish folk music]] group Canach, performed with her band at the wedding on Colonsay. Even after seeing that the dress was "obviously blue and black" in real life,<ref name="buzzfeed-blueandblack"/> 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 on her [[Tumblr]] blog and asked the same question to her followers, which led to further public discussion surrounding the image.<ref name=wp-insidestory/><ref name="buzzfeed-blueandblack">{{cite web |title=The Dress Is Blue And Black, Says The Girl Who Saw It in Person |url=http://www.buzzfeed.com/claudiakoerner/the-dress-is-blue-and-black-says-the-girl-who-saw-it-in-pers |website=BuzzFeed |accessdate=27 February 2015}}</ref>

==Response==

Internet conversations on 26 February had been dominated by commentary on the live television feed of official attempts to recapture two [[llama]]s, which had escaped their handlers after a visit to a [[retirement home]] in [[Phoenix, Arizona]], and then run through the city's streets. After the several-hour-long chase ended, Cates Holderness, who runs the Tumblr page for ''[[Buzzfeed]]'' at the site's [[New York City|New York]] offices, noted a message from McNeill asking for the site's help in resolving the colour dispute. At the time she dismissed it, but then checked the page near the end of her workday and saw that it had received around 5,000 notes in that time, which she said "is insanely viral [on Tumblr]." Tom Christ, Tumblr's director of data, said at its peak the page was getting 14,000 views a second (or 840,000 views per minute), well over the normal rates for content on the site. By later that night, the number of total notes had increased tenfold.<ref name="BuzzFeed anniversary oral history post">{{cite news |last=Warzel |first=Charlie |title=2/26: The Oral History |url=http://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/226-how-two-runaway-llamas-and-a-dress-gave-us-the-internets |newspaper=[[BuzzFeed]] |date=26 February 2015 |accessdate=28 February 2016}}</ref>

Holderness showed the picture to other members of the site's [[social media]] team, who immediately began arguing about the dress's colours among themselves. After creating a simple poll for users of the site, she left work and took [[New York City Subway|the subway]] back to her [[Brooklyn]] home. When she got off the train and checked her phone, it was overwhelmed by the messages on various sites. "I couldn't open [[Twitter]] because it kept crashing. I thought somebody had died, maybe. I didn't know what was going on." Later in the evening the page set a new record at ''BuzzFeed'' for [[Session (web analytics)|concurrent visitors]], which would reach 673,000 at its peak.<ref name="BuzzFeed anniversary oral history post" /><ref name=BBCNews1January2016>{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-35073088 |title=#TheDress couple: 'we were completely left out from the story' |date=1 January 2016 |publisher=BBC News |accessdate=28 January 2016}}</ref> 
{{Quote box
 |quote = ''The most interesting thing to me, is that it traveled. It went from New York media circle-jerk Twitter to international. And you could see it in my Twitter notifications because people started having conversations in, like, Spanish and Portuguese and then Japanese and Chinese and Thai and Arabic. It was amazing to watch this move from a local thing to, like, a massive international phenomenon.''<ref name="BuzzFeed anniversary oral history post" />
 |author = – Cates Holderness
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The image went viral worldwide across social media. On Twitter, users created the [[hashtag]]s "#whiteandgold", "#blueandblack", and "#dressgate" to discuss their opinions on what the colour of the dress was, and theories surrounding their arguments. The number of tweets about the dress increased throughout the night; at 6:36&nbsp;pm. EST, when the first increase in the number of tweets about the dress occurred, there were five thousand tweets per minute the hashtag "#TheDress", increasing to 11,000 tweets per minute with the hashtag by 8:31&nbsp;pm. EST.<ref name="BuzzFeed anniversary oral history post" /> The photo also attracted discussion relating to the triviality of the matter as a whole; ''[[The Washington Post]]'' described the dispute as "[the] drama that divided a planet."<ref name=wp-insidestory>{{cite news |title=The inside story of the 'white dress, blue dress' drama that divided a planet |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/02/27/the-inside-story-of-the-white-dress-blue-dress-drama-that-divided-a-nation/ |accessdate=27 February 2015 |work=The Washington Post}}</ref><ref name=bostoncom-colorbind>{{cite news |title=Color Bind: This Dress is White and Gold, Right? |url=http://www.boston.com/news/nation/2015/02/26/this-dress-white-and-gold-right/MxsJKvqOKtV4lMg84ffNEM/story.html |accessdate=27 February 2015 |work=Boston Globe}}</ref><ref name=slate-whiteandgold>{{cite web |title=The Official Live Blog: Is This Dress Blue and Black or White and Gold? |url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/02/26/the_great_blue_and_black_versus_white_and_gold_dress_debate.html |website=Slate |accessdate=27 February 2015}}</ref> Some articles suggested that the dress could prompt an "[[existential crisis]]" over the nature of sight and [[reality]], or that the debate could harm interpersonal relationships.<ref name="wp-insidestory"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.buzzfeed.com/kirstenking/this-dress-is-taking-over |title=This Dress Is Ruining People's Lives |date=26 February 2015 |accessdate=1 March 2015 |website=BuzzFeed |last=King |first=Kirsten}}</ref>

That evening, [[Wellesley College]] [[neuroscience|neuroscientist]] [[Bevil Conway]] gave some comments on the phenomenon to ''[[Wired (website)|Wired]]'' reporter Adam Rogers. Before they hung up, Rogers warned him, "your tomorrow will not be the same." Conway thought the reporter was exaggerating, saying, "I didn't appreciate the full extent of what was about to happen. Not even close." Rogers's story eventually got 32.8 million unique visitors. Meanwhile, when Conway woke up the next morning, his inbox had so many emails about the dress that at first, he thought his email had been hacked, until he saw that the bulk were interview requests from major media organisations. "I did 10 interviews and had to have a colleague take my class that day," said Conway.<ref name="BuzzFeed anniversary oral history post" />

Celebrities with larger Twitter followings began to weigh in overnight. [[Taylor Swift]]'s tweet – which described how while she saw it as blue and black, the whole thing left her "confused and scared" – was retweeted 111,134 times and liked 154,188 times.<ref name="BuzzFeed anniversary oral history post" /> [[Jaden Smith]], [[Frankie Muniz]], [[Demi Lovato]], [[Mindy Kaling]], and [[Justin Bieber]] agreed that the dress was blue and black, while [[Anna Kendrick]], [[B. J. Novak]], [[Katy Perry]], US Senator [[Chris Murphy (Connecticut politician)|Christopher Murphy]], [[Julianne Moore]], and [[Sarah Hyland]] saw it as white and gold.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mtv.com/news/2091624/dress-blue-black-white-gold-kim-kardashian-miley-cyrus-justin-bieber/ |title=What Colors Are This Dress? Kim Kardashian, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and a Bajillion Other Celebs Weigh In |publisher=MTV News}}</ref> [[Kim Kardashian]] tweeted that she saw it as white and gold, while her husband [[Kanye West]] saw it as blue and black. [[Lucy Hale]], [[Phoebe Tonkin]], and [[Katie Nolan]] saw different colour schemes at different times. [[Lady Gaga]] described the dress as "[[Periwinkle (color)|periwinkle]] and sand," while [[David Duchovny]] called it [[teal]]. Other celebrities, including [[Ellen DeGeneres]] and [[Ariana Grande]], mentioned the dress on social media without mentioning specific colours.<ref name="smh-dressgate"/><ref>{{cite news |last1=Iyengar |first1=Rishi |title=The Dress That Broke the Internet, and the Woman Who Started It All |url=http://time.com/3725628/the-dress-caitlin-mcneill-post-tumblr-viral/ |accessdate=27 February 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Jinks |first1=Caitlin |title='I feel like it's a trick somehow': Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian join other celebrities in dress debate taking over the internet |url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2971498/I-feel-like-s-trick-Taylor-Swift-joins-celebrities-dress-debate-taking-internet-says-frock-obviously-blue-black.html |accessdate=27 February 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Sanchez |first1=Josh |title='What color is this dress' confused celebrities, too |url=http://fansided.com/2015/02/26/color-dress-confused-celebrities/ |publisher=Fansided.com |accessdate=27 February 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Mahler |first1=Jonathan |title=A White and Gold Dress Overloads the Internet |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/28/business/a-simple-question-about-a-dress-and-the-world-weighs-in.html |website=[[The New York Times]] |accessdate=27 February 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://time.com/3725450/dress-taylor-swift-black-blue-white-gold-celebrities/ |title=Taylor Swift Says The Dress is Black and Blue |date=26 February 2015 |accessdate=1 March 2015 |website=Time |last=Iyengar |first=Rishi}}</ref> Politicians, government agencies and social media platforms of well-known brands also weighed in on the issue.<ref>{{cite web |author=Jim Dalrymple II |url=http://www.buzzfeed.com/jimdalrympleii/politicians-police-and-brands-have-weighed-in-on-the-dress#.reMRDqg90 |title=Politicians, Police, And Brands Have Weighed in On "The Dress" |publisher=Buzzfeed.com |accessdate=6 March 2015}}</ref> Ultimately, the dress was the subject of 4.4 million tweets within 24 hours.<ref name="BuzzFeed anniversary oral history post" />

In the UK, where the phenomenon had begun, Ian Johnson, creative manager for dress manufacturer Roman Originals, learned of the controversy from his [[Facebook]] news feed that morning. "I was pretty gobsmacked. I just laughed and told the wife that I'd better get to work," he said.<ref name="BuzzFeed anniversary oral history post" /> 
{{Quote box
 |quote = ''We've seen other stories go viral, but the sheer diversity of outlets that picked it up and were talking about it was unlike anything we had ever seen. Everyone from QVC to Warner Bros. to local public libraries to Red Cross affiliates were all posting links to it on their social accounts. That kind of diversity in who's sharing a story pretty much never happens…and certainly never to that degree. Even in the year since and with a million different people trying to replicate it, nothing has come close.''<ref name="BuzzFeed anniversary oral history post" />
 |author =Brandon Silverman, CEO of social media monitoring site CrowdTangle
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Businesses that had nothing to do with the dress, or even the clothing industry, devoted social media attention to the phenomenon. [[Adobe Systems|Adobe]] retweeted another Twitter user who had used some of the company's apps to isolate the dress's colours. "We jumped in the conversation and thought, ''Let's see what happens''," recalled Karen Do, the company's senior manager for social media. Jenna Bromberg, senior digital brand manager for [[Pizza Hut]], saw the dress as white and gold and quickly sent out a tweet with a picture of pizza noting that it, too, was the same colours. Do called it "literally a tweet heard around the world."<ref name="BuzzFeed anniversary oral history post" />

Ben Fischer of the ''New York Business Journal'' reported that interest in the first ''BuzzFeed'' article about the dress exhibited vertical growth instead of the typical [[Gaussian function|bell curve]] of a viral phenomenon, leading ''BuzzFeed'' to assign two editorial teams to generate additional articles about the dress to drive ad revenue,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bizjournals.com/newyork/blog/techflash/2015/02/the-dress-phenomenon-didnt-happen-by-accident.html |title=The Dress phenomenon didn't happen by accident. It took big money. |date=27 February 2015 |accessdate=1 March 2015 |website=New York Business Journal |publisher=American City Business Journals |last=Fischer |first=Ben}}</ref> and by 1 March, the original BuzzFeed article had received over 37 million views.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.buzzfeed.com/catesish/help-am-i-going-insane-its-definitely-blue |title=What Colors Are This Dress? |date=26 February 2015 |accessdate=1 March 2015 |website=BuzzFeed |last=Holderness |first=Cates}}</ref> The dress was cited by [[CNN]] commentator [[Mel Robbins]] as a viral phenomenon having the requisite qualities of [[positivity bias]] incorporating "awe, laughter and amusement," and was compared to and contrasted with the llama chase earlier that day, as well as to tributes paid to actor [[Leonard Nimoy]] after his death the following day.<ref name=Robbins>{{cite news |last1=Robbins |first1=Mel |title=Why blue/black/white/gold dress went viral |url=http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/27/opinion/robbins-llamas-dress/ |accessdate=3 March 2015 |publisher=CNN |date=28 February 2015}}</ref>

By 1 March, over two-thirds of ''BuzzFeed'' users polled responded that the dress was white and gold.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.buzzfeed.com/catesish/help-am-i-going-insane-its-definitely-blue#.oc130dDPQ |title=What Colors Are This Dress? |date=26 February 2015 |accessdate=1 March 2015 |website=Buzzfeed |last=Holderness |first=Cates}}</ref> Some people have suggested that the dress changes colours on its own.<ref name="wp-insidestory" /> Media outlets noted that the photo was [[overexposure|overexposed]] and had poor [[white balance]], causing its colours to be washed out, giving rise to the perception by some that the dress is white and gold rather than its actual colours.<ref name="wp-insidestory" /><ref name="mashable-overexposed">{{cite web |title=Why that dress looks white and gold: It's overexposed |url=http://mashable.com/2015/02/26/dress-white-gold-blue-black/ |website=Mashable |accessdate=27 February 2015}}</ref>

On 3 March, Ellen DeGeneres had Grace, Keir, Ceitlin, and Cecelia as guests on [[The Ellen DeGeneres Show|her show]].  After revealing that she sees the dress as white and gold, DeGeneres presented each of them with gifts of underwear patterned after the dress but combining both colour schemes, and show sponsors also gave the Johnstons a gift of $10,000 and a [[honeymoon]] trip to [[Granada]], as they had left their honeymoon early to participate in the show.<ref name="etonline.com"/> That night, [[Andy Cohen (television personality)|Andy Cohen]] criticised the gifts on ''[[Watch What Happens: Live]]'', calling the dress "lame and pointless."

The dress itself was confirmed as being a royal blue "Lace Bodycon Dress" from the retailer Roman Originals; although available in three other colours (red, pink, and ivory, each with black lace), a white and gold version was not available. The day after McNeil's post, Roman Originals' website experienced a major surge in traffic; a representative of the retailer stated that "we sold out of the dress in the first 30 minutes of our business day and after restocking it, it's become phenomenal."<ref name="nydn-romanoriginals">{{cite web |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/fashion/thedress-flying-racks-article-1.2131584 |title='The Dress' flying off racks following Internet sensation: 'We sold out in the first 30 minutes of our business day' |website=Daily News|location=New York |accessdate=27 February 2015}}</ref> On 28 February, Roman announced that they would make a single white and gold dress for a Comic Relief charity auction.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/news/the-dress-special-edition-made-in-gold-for-comic-relief-charity-auction-10085484.html |title='The Dress' returns in special edition gold and white version for Comic Relief charity auction |date=10 March 2015 |accessdate=10 March 2015 |website=The Independent}}</ref>

==Scientific explanations==
[[Neuroscientist]]s [[Bevil Conway]] and [[Jay Neitz]] believe that the differences in opinions are a result of how the human brain [[Color vision|perceives colour]], and [[chromatic adaptation]]. Similar theories have been expounded by the [[University of Liverpool]]'s Paul Knox.<ref name="Viewpoint">{{cite web |url=http://news.liv.ac.uk/2015/02/27/viewpoint-blue-black-white-gold/ |title=Viewpoint: Blue and black or white and gold? |publisher=News.liv.ac.uk |accessdate=27 February 2015}}</ref> Conway believes that it has a connection to how the brain processes the various hues of a [[daylight]] sky, noting that "your visual system is looking at this thing, and you're trying to discount the chromatic bias of the daylight axis. ... people either discount the blue side, in which case they end up seeing white and gold, or discount the gold side, in which case they end up with blue and black."<ref name="wired-science">{{cite web |title=The Science of Why No One Agrees on the Color of This Dress |url=http://www.wired.com/2015/02/science-one-agrees-color-dress/ |website=Wired |accessdate=27 February 2015}}</ref> Neitz remarked:<blockquote>Our visual system is supposed to throw away information about the illuminant and extract information about the actual reflectance... but I've studied individual differences in colour vision for 30 years, and this is one of the biggest individual differences I've ever seen.<ref name="wired-science" /></blockquote> One hypothesis focuses on the naming of colours as a possible explanation. According to this view, the eye can differentiate between over 3 million colours but we only have names for 20 to 30 of them.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.beamled.com/info/blog/the-dress-the-big-colour-debate/ |title=The Dress: The Big Color Debate |publisher=Beamled.com |date=2 March 2015 |accessdate=6 March 2015}}</ref>
[[Image:Duck-Rabbit illusion.jpg|thumb |right |The duck-rabbit, described in [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]]'s ''[[Philosophical Investigations]]'']]
Neuroscientist and psychologist Pascal Wallisch states that while inherently ambiguous stimuli have been known to vision science for many years, this is the first such stimulus in the colour domain that was brought to the attention of science by social media. He attributes differential perceptions to differences in illumination and fabric priors, but also notes that the stimulus is highly unusual insofar as the perception of most people does not switch. If it does, it does so only on very long time scales, which is highly unusual for bistable stimuli, so perceptual learning might be at play.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2015/02/what_color_is_this_dress_a_scientist_explains_visual_ambiguity_and_color.html |title=An experts lesson from the dress |work=Slate |date=2 March 2015 |accessdate=6 March 2015}}</ref> In addition, he says that discussions of this stimulus are not frivolous, as the stimulus is both of interest to science and a paradigmatic case of how different people can sincerely see the world differently, an acknowledgement of which is a precondition for world peace.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://pensees.pascallisch.net/?p=1901 |title=Why discussing the dress is not frivolous |publisher=pascallisch.net |date=2 March 2015 |accessdate=6 March 2015}}</ref> The philosopher [[Barry C. Smith]] compared the phenomenon with [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] and the [[rabbit–duck illusion]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-31662317 |title=What would Wittgenstein say about that dress? |publisher=BBC |date=27 February 2015 |accessdate=6 March 2015}}</ref>

The [[Journal of Vision]], a scientific journal about vision research, announced in March 2015 that a special issue about the dress will be published with the title ''A Dress Rehearsal for Vision Science''. The issue is due to be submitted by 1 July 2016, and scientific work is ongoing.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.visionscience.com/pipermail/visionlist/2015/008364.html |title=Journal of Vision – Special Issue on The Dress |date=12 March 2015 |accessdate=10 May 2015}}</ref> The first large-scale scientific study on the dress was published in ''[[Current Biology]]'' three months after the image went viral.<ref name=lafer-sousa/><ref name=gegenfurtner/><ref name=winkler/>

==Legacy==
The dress effectively captured the collective attention of online networks; in [[South Africa]], [[the Salvation Army]] has attempted to re-direct some of this mass awareness towards the issue of domestic violence.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/salvation-army-uses-the-dress-in-ad-targeting-violence-against-women-1.2985043 |title=Salvation Army uses The Dress in ad targeting violence against women |date=6 March 2015 |publisher=[[CBC News]] |accessdate=25 March 2015}}</ref> Daniel Howland, a Texas piercer, got a [[tattoo]] of the dress in blue and black with the words "White and Gold?". Howland said, "It's actually a great tattoo. It's just dumb," and "thought it was funny that it upset a lot of people."<ref name="insider" /><ref name="usatoday">{{cite web |url=http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/03/02/man-tattoo-the-dress-leg-texas/24266425/ |title=Man tattoos #thedress on his leg |work=[[USA Today]] |publisher=Gannett Satellite Information Network, Inc. |date=2 March 2015 |accessdate=11 March 2015 |author=Durando, Jessica}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cnet.com/news/tattoo-celebrates-blueblackwhitegold-dress-meme/ |title=Tattoo celebrates blue/black/white/gold dress meme |publisher=CNET |date=2 March 2015 |accessdate=11 March 2015 |author=Kooser, Amanda}}</ref>

As the original authors of the photograph that sparked the viral phenomenon, Bleasdale and Jinks later expressed frustration and regret over being "completely left out from the story", including their lack of control over the story, the omission of their role in the discovery, and the commercial use of the photo.<ref name=BBCNews1January2016/>

The dress was included on multiple year-end lists of notable internet memes in 2015.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ew.com/gallery/memes-biggest-2015/2403468_dress|title=The 15 Best Memes of 2015|website=Entertainment Weekly's EW.com|access-date=20 March 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.mtv.com/news/2681341/best-memes-took-internet-by-storm-in-2015/|title=24 Memes That Took The Internet By Storm in 2015|publisher=MTV News|access-date=20 March 2016}}</ref>  It was also the subject of a short story by erotica writer [[Chuck Tingle]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Nichols|first1=James Michael|title='Pounded By The Gay Color Changing Dress' Released By Chuck Tingle|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/03/pounded-gay-color-changing-dress_n_6794486.html|work=Huffington Post|accessdate=April 25, 2015}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of Internet phenomena]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
*{{cite web|url=http://swiked.tumblr.com/post/112073818575/guys-please-help-me-is-this-dress-white-and |title=Original Tumblr post |accessdate=29 February 2016 |deadurl=unfit |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://swiked.tumblr.com/post/112073818575/guys-please-help-me-is-this-dress-white-and |archivedate= }}  (as of 27 February 2015 at 01:49:59 [[Universal Time Coordinated|UTC]])

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[[Category:2015 in science]]
[[Category:Color]]
[[Category:Individual dresses]]
[[Category:Internet memes]]
[[Category:Optical illusions]]
[[Category:Visual perception]]