Posted March 4, 2015

 

Textiles went viral last week. Sort of. If you’ve been paying attention, even casually, you’ve heard about “The Dress” debate – the picture of the ubiquitous dress uploaded to Tumblr that created quite a schism in cyberspace and beyond. Is it white and gold – or blue and black? The debate continues to rage among fashionistas, color scientists, celebrities and many Joe Blows, even nearly a week after it was posted. It’s been deliberated on many newscasts and every possible social media and online news outlet, and the dress actually made an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show this week.

 

The Twitter hashtag #TheDress was the No. 1 trending topic in the U.S. for days. The original post has pulled in 73 million page views since being posted Thursday, according to Tumblr. It received approximately 140,000 page views per minute between 10:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. Thursday. And, to date, BuzzFeed has published 31 articles about the dress.

 

All of this fuss over the color of a garment? Ha. Not that I’m complaining. I’m just happy something textile related is getting so much attention, and not from a negative standpoint. It’s fun, and certainly proves that many Americans have way too much time on their hands, fiddling while Rome burns. If only they could get as fired up about something as important as the Trans-Pacific Partnership or net neutrality.

 

Assorted experts have weighed in on why the dress appears in different color schemes to different people. Internationally renowned color scientist Dr. Renzo Shamey of N.C. State’s College of Textiles gave his informed opinion on The Great Dress Debate in a piece posted on the college’s website. “The actual color of the dress is apparently blue and black, yet a change in illumination, angle of viewing, level of illumination, surround and each observer's level of color and light adaptation will influence what they see,” he wrote.” Well, there you go. His article drew the attention of the Washington TV show Good Day DC, which interviewed him. (Click here to view.)

 

From personal experience, I certainly understand how color can be misinterpreted. When shopping with my wife, she often asks, “Is this shirt black or blue?” “Um … black,” I answer, apparently incorrectly. “It’s navy,” she corrects. I can see how such similar dark hues can be mistaken, but the difference in white and gold and blue and black is stark. Yet, as a photographer and Photoshop professional, I’m well aware that the camera and its related toolbox can lie. What I can’t get over is how the same colors in the same image can be interpreted so drastically different.

 

In case you somehow missed it, here is the picture as it appeared on Tumblr. I’ve seen the colors vary on other sites, but for our purposes, I’m posting the original photo. What colors to you see? I’m, well, “dyeing” to know.