Just in case your brains aren’t melting out of your heads quick enough over the state of the world and the US election, Billie Eilish is out here stirring up another “what color is this” controversy. Many of us, well okay *I* am not over the is it white and gold or blue and black dress debate from five years ago. I remember reading one article and seeing the dress as white and gold when I started reading it and then as blue and black when I glanced back. It messed with my head. I still most commonly see it as white and gold in photos. I have a feeling Billie’s shoes will plague me in the same way.
Billie shared a video about how her dad had said her Nike Uptempo’s were pink and white and now her fans were just as bad, apparently, because some of them had said the same thing. Billie was incredulous, repeating – “PINK and whiiiiiite?!” Part of the problem I had with the first couple of videos was that I didn’t know what color the shoes were supposed to be because all Billie kept repeating was “pink and white.” And no matter how many times I watched, all I could see were a pair of pink and white shoes.
(warning: language)
Billie Eilish says her shoes are mint and white. What color do y’all see? Mint and white or pink and white? pic.twitter.com/DKSe0jvPIU
— Rap Alert (@rapalert2) October 18, 2020
As you can see in the tweet, the shoes are supposed to be white and mint. Billie posted a video in the daylight comparing them to an actual pink and white shoe and suddenly it was very clear that the shoes were white and mint. This Buzzfeed article posted a still photo of that comparison video, which is below. The shoes on the right are the ones we’re talking about.
I’ll admit, I still only saw pink and white in both cases. However, it should be noted, that article also has a photo of the blue and black dress and I saw it as white and gold when I was reading it. It wasn’t until I found this CNN video that shows the actual video Billie put to IG that I saw the shoe the way Nike intended. This is what the shoe is supposed to look like:
Nike Air More Uptempo Barley Greenhttps://t.co/sdjneUf1bY pic.twitter.com/fFQo13XTjj
— Sneaker4life (@sneaker4lifecom) October 18, 2020
In that photo above, I clearly see mint and white. And that’s when I got blue/black dress flashback because I returned to the exact same Buzzfeed article I read prior and suddenly all I saw was white and mint shoes. I even saw that damn dress in the right way! Part of me is dazzled by these mind-bending slights-of-vison and part of me wants to cry because how can I be so easily deceived by what’s so obviously wrong right in front of my eyes? It’s the closest I will ever come to understanding what it’s like to be a Trump supporter. I wonder if I would see pink and white in person, because it sound’s like Billie’s dad did. My husband saw the actual black and blue dress – it was legitimately on display at USC, that is how far it’s engrained itself into our culture – and he said there is no doubt live. Speaking of, Billie contends, still, in that infamous photo, the dress was blue and gold. Period. So she should have some compassion for those of us struggling with her shoes.
Oddly, I’d just read an article about how much the mind factors into how we read colors. It was, coincidently, titled: If the Color Pink Doesn’t Scientifically Exist, Why Can We See It?, in case anyone wants a more scientific answer to the shoe question above. I don’t know. I’m too scared to go back and look.
Photo credit: Twitter, Instagram and Getty Images
Totally looks pink to me in her video, but the lighting makes all the difference. Even the dress debate, there were different versions of the photo going around.
I look at colors a lot for clients, and our conference room lighting vs natural light are drastically different, so I always make them take the samples outside too.
It’s pink. On another note, I wish her hair were pink because that green is just awful.
She obviously likes it
Eilish’s video was definitely not lit well enough for us to see the colors correctly, and her attitude throughout it was a real turn-off for me, especially since if she’d watched it before she posted it, she would see the problem for herself. I realize she’s young and stupid, but she’s not much of a role model for how to treat your fans. Maybe the kids like it.
I do still see a hint of pink even in the official Nike photo.
She didnt seem serious at all though… maybe you have some other problem with her I dunno.
Nope I agree with CaireB. She’s waaaaay too invested in how we see her shoes and being a total B about it.
I didn’t think she was serious either, just joking around.
Really?
I thought it was cute.
She’s got personality and she’s salty funny.
Definitely looks pink and white to me in the video even after seeing the real colours tho 🤷♀️
I see pink and mint in the Nike photo. And pink and white in her video.
You’re just salty. It was meant to be cute and funny.
And this was after a week of the entire internet calling her fat.
I think some of you just don’t like her, which is fine. But it’s not her attitude that is the problem.
I’m 50 and think she is cute, refreshing, and very young.
She has a ton of mental health problems and has to live in a VERY public forum that constantly judges her.
It’s cool your not her demographic, but be an adult and don’t judge her for normal 18 year old behavior.
She has a very close knit family and it’s really beautiful how close she and her brother are. I personally think they are doing great navigating such huge fame.
Especially how they are currently trying to get out the vote and all they have been doing for that.
In ALL of those images the shoe looks pinky/purple AND mint to me. I mean, it doesn’t even look white when using product lighting and against a white backdrop. Were they designed to spark this exact debate?
Update: because I’m a petty B, I took a screenshot of the product image and used the dropper on the “white” part. The color hex is #E2E4F0 AKA LAVENDER!! Our eyes are not deceiving us.
I love the detectives/scientists out there! Thank you.
All I see is Pink and White. Probably because she keeps saying it over and over again.
Same.
So I’m alone here in my corner.
She annoys the heck out of me.
I’m a potty mouth when there is reason for it, but I can’t stand people who intersperse every other word with F*ck and F*ck*ng.
The shoes according to Nike are mint and white. I see both pink and mint. It really does depend on lighting.
Totally pink and white in her video, then in the ‘official’ image pink and green. But colours do weird things to your eyes and lighting makes a huge difference.
It’s mint and opalescent white. The “pink” that we see is the trapunto (quilted) word “air” on the side of the shoes. That opalescence, when it hits different light reads as pink.
She’s being deceptive though: by constantly pointing to the white part and calling it “pink” and pointing to the mint (albeit a very faint mint) part and calling it “white”, she’s reframing our perception to ignore the recessed mint, and accept it as the white.
I myself sat here scratching my head watching the video trying to understand why anyone would see the “air” part of the shoe as mint green. It’s not. Constantly saying pink and white, while pointing to the opposing colors is the misdirection.
in the video, pink and white. in the photo, pink and the lightest shade of mint.
I have a couple of pages to catch up on and usually like to go from oldest to newest BUT THIS HEADLINE GRABBED ME. Pathetic 😂
I see mint and white.
Per THE Dress: it was part of an optical illusion exhibit at our nature and science museum. It was there. I saw it up close, twice. It’s blue and black.
I don’t seen any mint or green in Nike’s photo or Billie’s video. I see pink and white in her video and Nike’s photo it’s either pink and white or just white and off-white. I don’t see any green anywhere.
True, but then people would think she was the singer. I have less trouble seeing the mint and white, than I do hearing her words.
I’m gonna join the pink and white team cuz that’s all I can see.