# The Dress

> A colour debate spread from Tumblr and helped Roman Originals sell 3,000 dresses.

- Owner: null
- Kind: Meme & format
- Sector: Culture (no sector)
- Seed date: 2015-02-26
- Peak date: 2015-02-27
- Spread Score: 37 (Niche), v1.2
- Mechanics: Platform jump, Press loop

## Summary

A Tumblr photograph divided viewers over the colours of a dress. BuzzFeed polling and Twitter debate brought it into news coverage, television and a charity advertisement.

## Timeline

- 2015-02-26 — swiked (Open web) — Caitlin McNeill posted the dress photograph on Tumblr.
- 2015-02-26 — BuzzFeed (Open web) — BuzzFeed published a poll asking readers to identify the dress colours.
- 2015-02-26 — WIRED (Press) — WIRED asked vision researchers to explain disagreement about the photograph.

The full timeline, metrics and sources are on the case page, or via the Pro API (https://howitspread.com/developers).

Canonical URL: https://howitspread.com/cases/the-dress-colour-debate

Cite as: How It Spread (2026). “The Dress.” Case HIS-01060. Spread Score v1.2: 37/100. Updated 2026-10-16. https://howitspread.com/id/HIS-01060