What color is the dress? Why do some people see blue and black and some people see gold and white when looking at a single image of a dress? : r askscience 1920s Cleo Flapper Dress in Black & Gold Flapper Boutique In 2015, a photograph of a dress went viral, dividing viewers over whether its colors were blue and black or white and gold. This optical illusion highlighted differences in human color The actual dress was black and blue. The confusion came from how lighting and color perception tricked people's brains, making some see it as white and gold. It became a viral example The Dress: An Interactive Classroom Experiment by Andrew Robinson Precarious Physicist Medium