The Dress Is Actually Black And Blue — Women Behind Viral Photo Come Clean

The debate over a dress in a viral photo that confused millions of people on Thursday has finally ended, thanks to the help of the women behind the viral sensation. Slate reports that the two women behind the confusing photo have confirmed that the garment is not gold and white like many people believed it to be. Instead, it is indeed black and blue!

The picture was originally posted to Tumblr by Caitlin McNeill, who explained to Slate that she had worn the dress to a friend’s wedding. A disagreement between the bride (her friend) and her fiancee is what sparked the insanely viral mystery that came to be.

“What happened was two of my close friends were actually getting married and the mother of the bride took a photo of the dress to send to her daughter. When my friend showed the dress to her fiancee, they disagreed on the color.”

McNeill probably didn’t realize that she and her friend had were going to trigger a worldwide reaction, but they posted the photo of the outfit on social media to test the reactions of their friends — all of which had disagreed on whether the dress was gold and white or blue and black. The reaction inspired Caitlin to go a step further, by adding the photo to her Tumblr account, where she admins a fan page dedicated to talent manager Sarah Weichel (a woman who represents Youtube talent).

McNeill attended the wedding where the dress was worn by the mother of the bride. She got to see it first-hand, and has confirmed that the dress is in fact blue with black lace trim. So that solves the mystery of the viral garment photo.

If you were wondering how so many people disagreed on something as trivial as the color of an outfit, Wired produced a report on the science behind the confusion that gripped everyone on the internet regarding the photo. In the report, it was settled by the writer that the dress had to be blue and black, because Wired’s photo team were able to use Photoshop to get down to the bottom of the mystery. The magazine’s senior photo editor explained how the light and background in the photo tricked the eyes of so many people.

“Most people will see the blue on the white background as blue. But on the black background some might see it as white. I bet night owls are more likely to see it as blue-black”

So were you fooled by the mystery of this color changing dress, or were you right all along?

[Photo: Twitter/Buzzfeed]