Kim Kardashian might have tried to break the internet but turns out she just needed one thing: a dress that appears to change colour depending on who's seeing it.
Ever since it appeared in a Tumblr post on Wednesday, the whole internet has been beside itself debating its "real" colour.
The fierce debate began when user Swiked shared a picture of her purchased item, and was baffled after her friends saw different colour in the image.
Since then thousands of people have taken to Twitter and opinion is divided into two camps, with one side passionately arguing the dress is gold and white and the other vehemently stating it is blue and black.
Here's her original post:
So, what's the truth? And why does it seem that there are two, or even three options of colours when looking at the dress?
Basically, it's all down to science. For starters, it's important to consider the way in which our brains interpret different colours.
When you see a “white shirt bathed in yellow sun, for instance, it needs to subtract the yellowness of the sun so that it can see the whiteness of the shirt – and it normally does”, writes Andrew Griffin for the Independent.
But, due to the confusing nature of the background in the picture, how you view the light surrounding the dress will determine what colour you see it as.
Some people look at the dress and get rid of the blue part because they see the surrounding light as nighttime, so they see it as gold and white.
Others get rid of the gold part because they see the surrounding light as a sunny day, so they see it as blue and black.
Which is why different people can see different colours. In fact, you might see the dress one way earlier on today, and come back to it later and see it as a totally different colour.
Many people have even tried to create helpful images, with the gradients of colours pictured, to help people decide on the colour of the dress.
Wired magazine spoke to Jay Neitz, a neuroscientist at the University of Washington, who said: “Our visual system is supposed to throw away information about the illuminant [the light] and extract information about the actual reflectance [the dress]. But I’ve studied individual differences in color vision for 30 years, and this is one of the biggest individual differences I’ve ever seen.” (Neitz sees white-and-gold.)
However, despite all this useful scientific explanation, that doesn't get around the fact that everyone is losing their minds over what colour they see dress.
Even celebrities were struggling to determine the colour of the dress:
I don't understand this odd dress debate and I feel like it's a trick somehow. I'm confused and scared. PS it's OBVIOUSLY BLUE AND BLACK— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) February 27, 2015
So, how do YOU see it? Answer our poll below...
By the way, the original dress has been found and it is blue and black and you can buy it here. But don't let that change your minds.