Black and blue right? What’s everyone getting so worked up about? Oh just a veritable army of naysayers who insist it is in fact, gold and white.
An image of the brutally divisive garment in question was posted to Tumblr by user swiked, who wrote: “Guys please help me – is this dress white and gold or blue and black? Me and my friends can’t agree and we are freaking the fuck out.”
Almost everyone with an internet connection has an opinion on this dress.
Taylor Swift tweeted: “I don’t understand this odd dress debate and I feel like it’s a trick somehow. I’m confused and scared. PS it’s OBVIOUSLY BLUE AND BLACK.”
Actress Mindy Kaling wrote: “I think I’m getting so mad about the dress because it’s an assault on what I believe is objective truth.”
Emmy Rossum asked: “Where are you guys seeing WHITE and GOLD?!”
She added: “My friend just texted me: ‘I’m questioning everything. What if Barbie was never really wearing pink?! I’ll be heartbroken’.”
The artist formerly known as Cheryl Cole would beg to disagree...
Rob Lowe apparently changed his mind, swinging from black and blue to: "Now I'm seeing it in white and gold! WTF??
Jaden Smith weighed in with: “I’m seeing Blue and Black, As Of Now.”
Anna Kendrick stated: "If that's not white and gold the universe is falling apart. Seriously what is happening????"
The image has gone viral, bringing BuzzFeed alone more than 670,000 concurrent views at one point.
Meanwhile some internet sleuths posited their own theories of the dress, with this “explanation” from YouTube vlogger BradTheLadLong appearing to take all credit for the matter.
In a message retweeted almost 9,000 times, though offering no reasoning as to why such a “test” should be administered, he wrote: “I’d like to thank everyone that took part in my sight test which showed a picture of a ‘white and gold’ or ‘black and blue’ dress.
“Firstly this was an experiment for myself and others in a bid to prove what we already thought and tested previously to be true.
“You will be surprised to know that the dress is actually white and gold however there is an explanation as to why some viewers are seeing black and blue.
“Scientists have proven when there is a big event in your life that is having a negative effect on you, your sightings of colours may vary and that is why some people are seeing black and blue.
“It’s merely all down to emotions and when the person seeing black and blue checks back another day, they might see the dress in white and gold because their mood has changed from the state they were in when previously viewing the dress.”
Snopes seems skeptical of BradTheLadLong's boast and traces the origin of the picture back to a 21-year-old singer named Caitlin McNeill who noted the dress had been worn at a friend's wedding and ignited a similar debate.
TIME magazine has attempted a sensible scientific explanation but as the Washington Post expertly summarises: "The answer, which The Post won't deign to elaborate on here, has something to do with science. And eyes. And colour and lights and colour balances. And Photoshop. And many other matters that over-intellectualise something as delightfully absurd as a colour-changing dress."
Software company Adobe has also entered the fray...
To further muddy the waters we found the actual dress for sale on Amazon for just £50, where it was marketed as a “Royal Blue” bodycon dress.
And there are some cracking customer reviews, including: “This dress is a glitch in the Matrix” and “this dress made me lose all my friends and now I am so lonely.”