It's been over a decade. Nobody agrees on what color that dress is. People who saw it as gold and white still see it as gold and white. People who saw it as blue and black still see it as blue and black. The internet kept moving but the disagreement didn't go anywhere. Here's what HAS changed: every relevant product is on sale.
Whatever team you're on — gold-and-white or blue-and-black — there's a dress out there in your color that's currently discounted. The cross-team buyer can have one of each. Anyone still arguing about the original dress over Thanksgiving dinner now has ammunition AND a wardrobe upgrade.
If you'd been looking at a properly calibrated display in 2015 you wouldn't have had the argument. Today's calibrated monitors are 40-60% off compared to launch pricing, and the entry-level color-accurate models (BenQ PD-series, Dell U-series) cost what your Best Buy laptop monitor cost five years ago.
The dress photo was taken in mixed warm-and-cool light, which is why everyone's brain split on it. Smart bulbs let you fix that — set the temperature for the room, every photo agrees on the color of every garment in it. The Hue + LIFX + Govee discount cycle hits every Black Friday and again on Cyber Monday.
Whether the dress is the dress is the dress. That's permanent. But at least now everyone can look at the same calibrated screen, in the same color-controlled room, and still disagree. Progress.