Dress Gate

#thedress #dressgate

Is it White and Gold or Blue and Black?
I was asked by numerous people to give my 2 bits! Always up for a color discussion, here are my 2 bits:

Trim – The black versus gold debate:
I saw both – what did you see?
I believe we all see color differently and allow our brain to define it differently - eg. a typical leaf in the sunshine does actually contain green and to most of us, we stop right there – our past knowledge tells us it is green and therefore that is what we see. However if the leaf shape is eliminated so our brain doesn’t overpower us into ‘green leaf’, then we start to see yellow (where direct sunlight reflects off the leaf), perhaps blue (where the sky is reflected), black (in the shadows), brown (stems) etc.

The trim areas of the dress look black to many because that is actually what it is. However, there is an undertone of gold because of the light that is reflecting off of the black fabric. Whatever undertone stood out to you at first glance is what your brain told you the color was and then that is what you see. However, when it was suggested that the trim might be a different color, many started to look for that other color and started to pick up on the color that wasn’t as obvious to them at first.

Body – White versus Blue debate:
I saw periwinkle blue – what did you see?
Though the actual dress may be a saturated blue, the photo of the dress is hazy and contains a large amount of reflected light which appears white. Again the undertones of the dress come into play, if you picked up the sheen more readily, then you probably saw much more of the white component that those that keyed into the blue undertones.

So what is your interpretation?
What did you see?
Did your opinion change when you heard the debate?