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 of how human vision can interpret colors differently under certain How I Flipped My Brain's View of the Black and Blue Dress Jeff Greenhouse This explains how the blue black white gold dress illusion was possible. But it doesn't explain why some people saw it one way and some saw it the other, and no one seemed to see Women's Black And Gold Dresses REVOLVE Proof the Dress Is Blue PS Tech