Optical illusion: Dress colour debate goes global BBC News Dressgate: If you saw THAT dress as white your brain was working overtime 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 The Dress divided the Internet, but it's really about subtraction Science News 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 Debate rages over color of dress photographed in rare light