--- description: It was evening on Feb. 26, 2015, when a question was asked that would change the course of history forever: "What color is this dress?" title: 'The Dress' Broke the Internet One Year Ago Today image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # 'The Dress' Broke the Internet 1 Year Ago Today  by [Megan McCluskey](/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Staff Writer Feb 26, 2016 4:53 PM CUT  by [Megan McCluskey](/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Staff Writer Feb 26, 2016 4:53 PM CUT It was early evening on Feb. 26, 2015, when a simple question changed the course of Internet history forever: “What color is this dress?” > [](https://twitter.com/RoFlo/status/571130225884409856) It’s been one year to the day since the debate over whether a simple garment was [white and gold](http://This May Be Why You’re Seeing the Dress as White and Gold "undefined") or blue and black created the biggest [viral phenomenon](http://time.com/4232465/damn-daniel-viral-twitter-video-white-vans/ "undefined") of 2015, so let’s go back to where it all began. The photo of the dress in contention was first posted on [this Tumblr page](http://swiked.tumblr.com/post/112073818575/guys-please-help-me-is-this-dress-white-and "undefined") 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 f—k out.” **Read More:** [Everyone on the Internet Wants to Know What Color This Dress Is](http://time.com/3725356/dress-blue-black-white-gold/ "undefined") Cue the world losing its collective mind. After just two days, there were over 4.4 million tweets about the dress, according to [the _Observer_](http://observer.com/2016/02/the-dress-is-1-year-old-today-you-wont-believe-the-impact-its-had-on-science/ "undefined"). And things didn’t stop there. The dispute over the hues of the clothing item continued for weeks, inspiring rage-fueled social media arguments, scientific explanations of people’s color perceptions and a multitude of think pieces. > [](https://twitter.com/AdamRida/status/703230493303529472) Since then, it’s been [determined](http://time.com/3858839/the-dress-viral-study/ "undefined") that the dress is actually blue and black with a trick of the light causing many to see it as white and gold. But while the mystery of the dress has been solved, the influence that it has had on Internet culture won’t soon be forgotten. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4238688/the-dress-1-year-anniversary-white-gold-blue-black/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4238688/the-dress-1-year-anniversary-white-gold-blue-black/"},"headline":"'The Dress' Broke the Internet 1 Year Ago Today","datePublished":"2016-02-26T16:53:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:30:31.727Z","description":"Not to mention it was also the day of the runaway llamas","url":"https://time.com/4238688/the-dress-1-year-anniversary-white-gold-blue-black/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","memes"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4238688/the-dress-1-year-anniversary-white-gold-blue-black/","name":"'The Dress' Broke the Internet 1 Year Ago Today"}}]}] ```