Blue and Black or White and Gold? Dress Confuses Many; There’s a Possible Explanation

A dress being shared on social media sites has prompted an intense debate: Is it black and blue or white and gold?

A dress being shared on social media sites has prompted an intense debate: Is it black and blue or white and gold? Screenshot

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Here’s another way to look at the image, according to an Epoch Times designer: “The colors in this photo were very far from a proper white balance. As an explanation, for what it’s worth, colors are by nature sympathetic. When white is next to a bright gold, the grays in the white will appear to lean towards blue, because blue is the compliment of gold. The same way if next to a certain purple, the grays will appear a certain green.”

This is what the dress looks like after it was corrected:

Just to show how much white balance matters, look at this picture of the White House. Or maybe we’ve been calling it by the wrong name all along?  

bbourdages/iStock/Thinkstock

 This is what Photoshop tells us the color is.

  To add to the confusion, here are photos of the original dress in two of the four colors it sells in.

Courtesy of Roman Originals

Using Google’s reverse image search it seems like Google thinks the dress is blue.