Viral Illusion Dress Appears to 'Cut Body in Half' in Confusing Video
It might not be the black and blue or white and gold dress illusion of 2015, but this shaping dress has the internet confused.
Influencer @xojem_, whose name is Jemian, shared a video of her trying on a new dress a week ago but the result appeared like she'd managed to suddenly half the size of her waist by simply tying it up.
The video has gained over 300,000 likes in the short amount of time it's been up, and seemingly baffled everyone who has watched it.
When Jemian takes the side ties of the bodycon dress, her whole body seems to move inwards an unbelievable amount, thanks to the pattern on the dress.
The illusion seems to be caused by the pattern on the ties stretching in a curved shape, creating the illusion that the waist itself has moved, when it's simply the edge of the fabric that has moved in. The end of the ties, where they meet the rest of the dress, are also a dark shade, making it stand out and appear like the outline of the waist.
Jemian's video has also highlighted the illusion, by using a darker background which blends in with the dark part of the fabric and disguises her actual body to an extent.
"It looked like you almost cut yourself in half for a second," wrote one commenter.
"I'm sober and can't comprehend [it]," added another, referring to the multitude of comments left claiming to be too inebriated to understand what happened to her body.
"When I tell you I gasped," wrote one viewer.
Jemian confirmed in a comment that she didn't know the dress created an illusion when purchasing it, but simply liked the pattern. The dress itself is from popular fashion retailer Fashion Nova, where it retails for $22.99. Since the viral video however, the dress has been sold out in all sizes.
It doesn't seem the dress was designed with the idea of creating an illusion, despite how trippy it may be, according to its own description online which contains a disclaimer that "print placement will vary." This means those buying it after the video may not even find the same illusion effects as Jemian did.
Various TikTok users have shared videos inspired by the original, showing how the dress appeared on them. Although the dress did have some slimming qualities in the copy-cat videos, it unfortunately didn't appear to have the mind blowing effect the first did.
