You’ve probably all heard about “the dress.” Yes, this dumb dress that no one seems to know the exact color of. Is it blue and black or white and gold? Do you see both or only one color? Scientists, students and Internet-users alike are currently arguing over why you see the dress in these different colors. Is it the lighting in the picture? Are your eyes compensating for something? Is it some kind of crazy phenomenon no one is quite aware of yet?
To be clear, the dress has been confirmed to be, in real life, black and blue. The only reason people see it differently is because of some poorly lit picture. However, that still doesn’t answer my central question: what in the world do you wear with this dress?
This entire problem stems from the fact that someone took a terrible photo. So, what if you wear the dress to a wedding or something and your picture is taken in some other poorly lit venue and the same effect occurs. You’re either going to look bombing or absolutely terrible as people who see the pictures tell you what a nice gold dress you had on when it was really blue.
With the real dress, blue and black, you could definitely rock some nice black tights and some black heels. Personally, I love booties like these ones from Payless, but really any sort of black heel (a simplier one, perhaps) would look great. Open black shoes would also look excellent.
I wouldn’t recommend that random blue jacket in the picture that seems go along with the dress, but instead maybe a nice simple black sweater if you get cold like this one from Macy’s.
Looking great, right?
Okay, but what if your mom sees that picture of you on Facebook from the party you went to on Friday and asks you where you got that white and gold dress. Uh oh. Not only are you wearing black with white and gold which is a crazy contrast (if you can rock it, go right ahead), but now it’s probably in the middle of winter and you’re not wearing winter colors.
Okay, so now if you want mom to be happy, you have to forgo the tights and maybe just wear some pantyhose. You can dress up a white and gold dress with some nice peachy jewelry or turquoise. Now, you look awesome for a summer garden party, especially if you pair it with some nice sandals.
But you still have a problem: the dress is REALLY black and blue. You just need some better lighting.
Alright, so now your dad calls and he’s one of those special snowflakes who sees the stupid dress as gold and blue. A blue and gold dress would look great with black tights and nice mixed metals. Etsy has some great mixed metals.
Tie it all off with black heels.
And now that works perfectly with the REAL color of the dress.
You may run into some people who tell you that, in your picture, it’s “lavender” (like my dad) or it’s black and white (yeah, those people exist), but the only thing to blame here is the lighting. Sure, you can try and change up your look to accommodate a terrible picture that may occur or you can just take better photography. If you aspire to wear “the dress,” dress it up with the tips above and make sure you have the right lighting. If all else fails, photoshop and instagram filters are your friends. You can buy the dress here.