Internet Nostalgia

Let’s Revisit The Dress

The only thing that matters is what I see.

Welcome to part 21 of our Internet Nostalgia series, which looks back at phenomena that captured the internet’s imagination and attention for a fleeting moment and then vanished as everyone moved on to something else. This series looks back at those olden times and what they told us about the internet and ourselves. If you have a suggested topic, email me at williamfleitch@yahoo.com. Last week: The Manti Te’o hoax. This week: The Dress.

When: 2015.

The Story: A Scottish woman named Cecilia Bleasdale was shopping in a Lancashire mall for a dress for her daughter’s wedding when she came across one she liked. She sent a picture of it to her daughter, who said the dress was a pretty gold and white. But Bleasdale said it was blue and black. Her daughter told her, “if you think that’s blue and black you need to go and see the doctor.” That daughter then posted the picture to Tumblr and discovered that … everyone was seeing the dress entirely differently.

Suddenly, The Dress was trending worldwide. Was it gold and white? Was it black and blue? Each person looking at it was absolutely certain of its color, but then they’d talk to another person, just as certain, who saw it entirely differently. It made you…