The great dress debate

Americans were all a twitter about the colour of a dress. We investigate.

Picture: Twitter

A tumbler user, who turned out to be Scottish singer Caitlin McNeill, shared a picture of a dress, it. In her post, she stated that she and her friends couldn’t agree on whether the dress was blue and black or white and gold.

Take a look at the dress.

Ordinarily, this would be a simple thing to discern, but the question sparked a debate that went viral on social media. So viral, in fact, that celebrities joined in on the debate.

Pop princess Taylor Swift and comedian Mindy Kaling were very vocal about the dress.

https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/571131244634877952

IT'S A BLUE AND BLACK DRESS! ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME

— Mindy Kaling (@mindykaling) February 27, 2015

And it didn’t stop there. Experts were called by the likes of National post, an American news website.

People even took to twitter with colour graphs to explain why the blue and black dress looked white and gold or vice versa.

https://twitter.com/rebelashton/status/571116554357596160

Of course there were others who took the opportunity to make fun of the whole situation, like actor B.J Novak who was in the white and gold camp.

I love this picture of @Pontifex in his traditional black & blue pic.twitter.com/expPJ93HPg

— B.J. Novak (@bjnovak) February 27, 2015

https://twitter.com/_juliannemoore/status/571144740101615617

And here I was thinking that the ubiquitous dress question was whether or not it makes you look fat. #DressGate2015

— Rob Van Vuuren (@RobVanVuuren) February 27, 2015

Which came first the chicken or the dress?

— Shalyah Evans (@ShalyahEvans) February 27, 2015

While we’re not sure what exactly causing the confusion – the dress is clearly blue and black – we took a look at what could be causing the mass confusion. The yellowish light casts a bit of a glow on the black lace, which may give it a goldish tint. While different angles certainly affect the perceived colour of the dress, we’re putting it down to lighting.

Light is a wonderful thing, it can even change the way you look, just like in this video.

http://youtu.be/uqTuo2yQBXM

In other famous dress news, the pearl studded dress worth $150 000 (R1 727 197.50) that actress and Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o wore to the 87th annual Academy Awards, was stolen from her hotel room. The dress was studded with 6000 pearls and was designed by Francisco Costa for the Calvin Klein Collection. Reports say it will be quite difficult to sell the dress as it’s been worn by a high profile star, and should the thief decide to sell the pearls, they wouldn’t fetch much.