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Two Years Later, Vision Scientists Are Still Studying the Dress

Yes, that dress.

In 2015, an image of a striped dress took the internet by storm. Some people saw the stripes as gold and white, while others saw them as black and blue. The debate raged for days in the trenches of internet forums, families were divided, and lives were undoubtedly lost in defense of stupid opinions. But when the dust settled and the carnage was seen clearly by the light of day, what did the internet have to show for itself? Were we any closer to discovering the true color of the dress, or had internet reputations been torn asunder in vain?

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We could borrow Situationist critique and discourse on the Spectacle of the Dress until the end of days, but according to the company who made the dress the garment is actually black and blue. But that still doesn't answer the question of why so many people saw something totally different—a question that scientists are still puzzling over.

According to new research published today in Journal of Vision (which announced that it would be compiling a special issue on vision science related to the dress) the dress discrepancy boils down to individual assumptions about how the dress was illuminated.

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