--- title: Pictures Like the Dress That Broke the Internet description: No one saw these photos — from the dress to a man who was either Tom Hanks of Bill Murray — the same way. canonical: https://time.com/4740154/photo-illusions-the-dress/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-07T14:53:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2024-01-17T15:34:31.000Z og:title: It's the Five-Year Anniversary of The Dress. Let's Stare at Five Photos That Sparked Passionate Internet Debates og:description: The ultimate vision quests: From the infamous dress to Tom Hanks or Bill Murray? og:url: https://time.com/4740154/photo-illusions-the-dress/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: It's the Five-Year Anniversary of The Dress. Let's Stare at Five Photos That Sparked Passionate Internet Debates twitter:description: The ultimate vision quests: From the infamous dress to Tom Hanks or Bill Murray? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Happy Five-Year Anniversary to 'The Dress.' 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Updated: Jan 17, 2024 3:34 PM UTCPublished: Jun 7, 2017 2:53 PM UTC by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Updated: Jan 17, 2024 3:34 PM UTCPublished: Jun 7, 2017 2:53 PM UTC It’s not everyday the internet joins together on a vision quest, but some photos have the power to spark an internet debate. It’s because of how people perceive things — especially color — differently. Case in point: People are still talking about the instant viral phenomenon that’s now known as “the dress.” In fact, it’s five years ago to the day since that one garment captivated the masses. The infamous question of whether the polarizing striped frock was blue and black or white and gold garnered [millions of hits](http://observer.com/2016/02/the-dress-is-1-year-old-today-you-wont-believe-the-impact-its-had-on-science/) and spurred passionate social media clashes. Now a study published in April by the [_Journal of Vision_](https://cld.bz/bookdata/iKQtUL/basic-html/page-23.html#) basically concluded that our different takes all boil down to one thing: the way each individual perceives the way light illuminated the dress differently. While a new photo hasn’t reached the dress’s fame levels, here are five pictures that got the internet’s eyes popping. ### **THE only dress that ever mattered** In February of 2015, Scottish musician Caitlin McNeill [posted a photo](http://time.com/3725628/the-dress-caitlin-mcneill-post-tumblr-viral/?iid=sr-link4) of a washed out [dress](http://time.com/4238688/the-dress-1-year-anniversary-white-gold-blue-black/) and a simple question: “Is this dress white and gold or blue and black?” BuzzFeed staffer Cates Holderness put the user’s original query online with a poll that prompted the citizens of the internet to lose its collective mind because each person was 100% certain of the dress’s true colors. > [](https://twitter.com/RoFlo/status/571130225884409856) ### **America’s Dad or Sly Comedian?** Laura R. of Scotland originally submitted the photo in question to the parenting blog [“Reasons My Son Is Crying”](http://time.com/4542434/bill-murray-or-tom-hanks-photo/) back in May 2013\. The puzzling snapshot resurfaced in October 2016 and immediately divided the internet into two camps: some thought it was [America’s dad Tom Hanks](http://time.com/4530835/tom-hanks-meeting-fans/), while others were convinced it was the [elusive comedian Bill Murray](http://time.com/4712504/bill-murray-xaver-game/). ### **Super Shiny Legs or a Paint Job?** When Hunter Culverhouse posted a [photo of legs to Instagram](http://time.com/4546630/this-photo-of-someones-shiny-legs-is-dividing-the-internet/), the snapshot confused thousands on the internet. Some thought her limbs were splashed with white paint, and others saw very glossy, shiny legs. > [](https://twitter.com/kingkayden/status/791112708594634753) ### **Eye-Popping Arm Candy** When Taylor Corso from Mississippi shared a photo of her newly purchased Kate Spade handbag on Twitter in October 2016, the photo sparked a raging Twitter storm. Some were certain the handbag was blue and others saw it as white. > [](https://twitter.com/whyofcorso/status/783380638757974020) ### **A Real Flip Flopper** More dissent on the color front. When Arthur Luppi De Nardi tweeted a shot of a pair of Havianas flip flops and asked “what do you see?” in Portuguese, the sandals got the freakout machine whirring again. > [](https://twitter.com/positivedemi/status/799346903112630272) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4740154/photo-illusions-the-dress/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4740154/photo-illusions-the-dress/"},"headline":"Happy Five-Year Anniversary to 'The Dress.' 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