Dress of Mystery is Discussed, Passionately

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Is this dress gold and white, or black and blue? This is the question puzzling literally thousands of people online right now. The dress photo was originally posted on Tumblr with the caption, "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."

Comments from fellow Tumblrs reveal general confusion leading to panic. "So I just looked at this like, it’s blue and black obviously and all my friends were like no it’s blue and gold. Now I’m super confused, what is eyesight?" says one. "I see it as white and gold. My friend right here sees it as blue and black. I CANT HANDLE THIS," screams another."i just saw it as gold and white which was weird bc earlier it was blue and black so i thought maybe ye were fucking with me but i went to reblog and now its blue and black again?!1? I AM GOING TO CRY, said yet another. BuzzFeed, to its credit, has actually reported the issue out (as much as one could).

As it stands now, there is a public, divided. There is a dress, that is striped. That we can all agree upon.

Update: The mystery, like a poorly-constructed dress, is unraveling. If you invert the dress color in Photoshop it changes from black and blue to white and gold—or vice versa.

Wired, Vice, and Vox all have theories, some backed up by actual scientists.