The Unexpected Fashion Phenomenon of the Season: Dress To Impress
Ariel Rivera
Through the Brat summer’s and Love Island’s of it all, this year has shown one thing: people are craving an escape. A mental haven where any song, show, or game, can make them forget their troubles and have some plain ol’ fun. A place they can go to unwind and decompress from all the doom and gloom that accompanies a year stockfull of political uncertainty. Somewhere where they can open up a beer ‘n’ take it over here ‘n’ play a video game. Enter Dress To Impress, the hit fashion game of the summer.
Created by Roblox users Gigi and Natalie (@Gigi_Dti and @NaaNatalie, respectively), the game was launched in October 2023 to relatively little fanfare. At launch, the game had a totally different look with minimal clothing and hair options available to players. In these first few months, Gigi and Natalie would experiment with the game’s aesthetic and style with updates dropping every month. Eventually the game found its footing and by summer 2024, the internet found its new obsession.
Image Credit: Roblox
Dress To Impress invites players to show off their fashion creativity on themed runways, competing for the title of best dressed in various categories. The more games you win, the higher your rank grows, ultimately reaching the title of Top Model - minus the psychological torture of Tyra Banks. It’s Pose meets The Hunger Games meets MyScene.
The categories vary widely from game to game, ranging from something as simple as Sweet 16 to niche micro-styles such as Visual Kei (a style inspired by the extravagant costuming of 1980’s Japanese musicians). This diversity is what makes Dress to Impress more than just another makeover game, it’s a whole new world to discovering and interacting with fashion!
Promo images from the Brat x DTI collab launched in August, Image Credit: Roblox
The game also has a VIP option available to players where for a single purchase of $10, they get access to a separate in-game room with alternative options for clothes, makeup, and hair.
Dress To Impress’ scope knows no bounds, as I write this 118 thousand people are currently playing the game according to its homepage. In total, since the games launch in November it has been visited 3 billion times! It’s not even a year old yet, and it’s already one of the most popular games on the site.
With a growing number of celebrity players and collaborations - such as the most recent Charli XCX collab which resulted in a staggering 650k active players at once - Dress To Impress’ reign has no end in sight.
The game’s platform, Roblox, is primarily a site for kids and tweens to play on, so what is it exactly that makes this game so enticing to an older crowd?
Well for starters, the game is way more complex than it appears. All the clothes is customizable with 230 individual pattern options plus a color wheel for each article of clothing. With this level of customization players creativity has no bounds. You can also layer everything, allowing for fully unique and original outfits each round. Dress To Impress offers an accessible creative outlet to any person interested in fashion.
The community element of the game is also what makes it so entertaining. The rules of social etiquette make it wrong to judge others, but let’s face it we all have opinions every once in a while - everyone’s a critic. Dress To Impress players can get quite vicious with their critiques, if they don’t like your outfit they will let you know, but that is part of the fun - it’s competition, it’s politics, it’s fashion!
Image Credit: Roblox
Interestingly enough, Dress To Impress also has a cosplay aspect to it as many viral TikToks feature players recreating iconic characters from pop culture, ranging anywhere from the Hamburglar to Chappell Roan. Playing dress up is nostalgia’s smoking gun, naturally there’s a sense of being a kid again when you play.
The game is a cyber sanctuary of self-expression. It’s freedom from the binaries and limitations of the world, a virtual oasis where you can be anything you want. Anyhow, any place, anywhere, anyone, any form, any shape.
Strike Out,
Ariel Rivera
Editor: Carla Mendez
Ariel Rivera: Ariel Rivera is a junior at Florida International University, majoring in Media Communications with a minor in English Studies. As a writer, Rivera is passionate about expanding on pop culture topics that may seem frivolous at first glance, but which, through his unique point of view, become pillars of discussion. A self-described crazy film nerd, Rivera enjoys watching and reviewing movies in his free time, as well as reading and lounging with his dog, Neo.
