It’s happening again. Everyone’s eyes are deceiving them and no one knows what is real anymore.
In the aftermath of the most divisive internet event in modern history, in February 2015, friendships have been built and burnt to the ground over a simple, and pretty cheap-looking, blue and black dress.
The sands of time fell and we all mended, safe in the knowledge that all it took to make the fragile and fractured world wide web melt down was an optical illusion – we vowed to never repeat history – until now.
A spanish student, who has chosen to remain anonymous, was sent a photograph of a women’s Vans-style skate shoe bought by a friend from a Footlocker in Alicante, who claimed the design was blue and pale grey.
But all the woman saw was a baby pink lace-up with white detailing, taken through a slightly blue-tinted lens. Thus the debate between her and her mate began.
Posting to the Facbeook girls’ group, GIRLSMOUTH, she wrote:
Ok girls so my friend has just sent me this asking what colour the shoe is, I would say pale pink and white, but she insists its pale blue and grey.
What do you girls see? Please tell me pink and white!
Speaking exclusively to UNILAD, the 25-year-old relayed her friend’s tale:
She bought the shoes a few weeks ago and sent a picture to her mom yesterday. Her mom said that the blue suited her. She texted back saying ‘They are pink mum’, but when she looked at the picture she saw blue too.
So she sent it to me and I was convinced they were pink. We had a big argument as she said I only said pink because I knew she had bought pink shoes. We decided ‘F*ck it, lets put it on social media and see what happens’ as we are best friends and believe there must be a reasonable explanation.
When she snapped the pic she didn’t use any filter on it so we aren’t sure if its her phone that has a built in filter or its the way the light is, total mystery, we want peoples opinions!
Almost all at once, the corner of the web who love a good optical illusion puzzle piped up, with ‘Team Pink’ rebutting ‘Team Blue’ and many others taking to the fence and claiming they’ve seen both patterns of colour appear independently.
As the comments continue to blow up, a rogue ‘Team Green’ seems to have emerged, with one maverick claiming she sees a ‘purple and yellow’ shoe while another claims the colour changes depending on your screen brightness.
Some claim the trainer is obviously ‘pale pink’ while others have described the canvas as ‘turquoise’, ‘aquamarine’, ‘spearmint blue’, ‘teal’ and ‘mint green’.
One woman, from the ever-eloquent blue team even claims:
It’s mainly grey and blue but I see what looks like pink stains all over the toe.
Either all these people are on Dulux’s payroll, or we’ve got another thrilling optical illusion on our hands, people.
But don’t panic, there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation. Science to the rescue!
What happens is different wavelengths of light that correspond to different colours enter our eye through the lens and hit the retina, where pigments fire up neural connections to the visual cortex, allowing the brain to form those signals into an image.
Our brain intuitively filters out backgrounds and lighting in order to see the ‘true’ colour of an object but the bluish tint of the photo is affecting that ability.
It’s the damn dress all over again.
The woman who received the photograph still sees the trainers as pink and white, but as she spoke to UNILAD, she recalled the Great Dress Debate of 2015 – otherwise known as Dressgate – and revealed she saw a white and gold garment…
After that revelation, despite the dress obviously being blue and black and the trainers obviously being pink and white, I’m really not sure who to believe.
The debate ravages on.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.