Two women are behind the viral dress that has everyone confused - Here's what they told us
The picture was initially posted on Tumblr by a 21-year-old singer named Caitlin McNeill who lives on the tiny Scottish island of Colonsay.
In a telephone conversation with Business Insider on Thursday evening, McNeill explained that the picture was a dress was worn to her friends' wedding. In the photo, some people see the dress as white and gold while others see it as blue and black.
The dress was worn by the bride's mother. McNeill and her friends first realized there was something different about the dress when the mother sent her daughter the now-famous photo.
"What happened was two of my close friends were actually getting married and the mother of the bride took a photo of the dress to send to her daughter," McNeill explained. "When my friend showed the dress to her fiancee, they disagreed on the color."
The bride then posted the picture on Facebook and her friends continued to debate the color of the dress.
"All of our friends disagreed," McNeill said.
After seeing the Facebook thread, McNeill decided to share the picture on a fan page she has on Tumblr dedicated to a woman named Sarah Weichel. That's where the dress went viral.
Weichel is a talent manager who represents several YouTubers including Hannah Hart.
Weichel told Business Insider her phone began blowing up on Thursday after McNeill's post started going viral.
"The crazy thing is, I actually have nothing to do with the post. It's literally just a fan account of me, so my name and my photos are all over the account," Weichel said. "I actually don't have anything to do with it. ... But I have been getting a ton of phone calls and emails tonight."
The situation was even weirder for Weichel because her client, Hart, was just announced as the star of a new television series on Thursday."Between that announcement and the dress thing my phone has been going crazy with congratulations and 'What the hell is happening?'" Weichel said.Weichel put Business Insider in touch with McNeill who said one of the oddest parts of the experience has been watching celebrities share her picture."I thought my followers on Tumblr would maybe have a good reaction, but I never would have considered that Taylor Swift and Mindy Kaling would be tweeting about it," McNeill said.Out of all the celebrities who became interested in her post, McNeill would like to meet Swift."Oh my god," she said when we asked about Swift. "That would be something." McNeill plays guitar and sings in a band named Canach that plays what she described as "traditional Scottish folky music." Her band played at the wedding. She actually saw the dress and told us definitively what color it really is."I got to the wedding and the mother was wearing the dress," McNeill said. "Obviously it was blue and black."