In July, a meme started making the rounds of a kid in a mall being asked about what games they play — no, not Fortnite they retort, instead, they ‘play dress to impress with my baddies’. Me too, hun.
For the uninitiated, Dress To Impress is a free-to-play game on Roblox (a platform that allows users to program and create their own games) that is taking the world by storm. Released in late 2023, it has clocked up over 2.7 billion plays so far and three awards at the Roblox Innovation Awards. Whilst Roblox is a platform in which over 80% of users are under 25, Dress To Impress is bursting this bubble and finding wide appeal amongst Gen A, Gen Z and even millennials like me.
So why is it so popular? I played to find out, so you don’t have to (though I would really recommend that you do).
The premise of Dress To Impress is simple…
You have 5 minutes and 25 seconds to style and dress an avatar to a theme. Having created your look, you strut the runway, striking poses, showing off your style. Players then rate each others’ fits, crowning first, second and third place. Part of the appeal is the simplicity. It’s easy to download, free, intuitive and all are welcome. The endlessly customisable options mean that each round is unique, and everyone can explore and express their style (although it lacks any sort of relatable body types). As a result, you see a massive range of players; from YouTube make up streamer JamesCharles to (legendary player) CaseOh with his red hair and beard spilling out from under his raised hood as he screams ‘chat, I’m about to cook’. This simplicity belies a complexity, both in terms of the meticulous way that looks are put together (the secret, I hear, is layering) but also hints of lore and mystery hidden in plain sight. A storyline has developed around the (now disappeared and possibly kidnapped) nail technician, Lana, who has been replaced with the suspicious Lina. There are rooms to explore, secret areas and easter eggs hidden all around; connecting with the culture of sleuthing that we find in everything from the problematic identification of Baby Reindeer characters, to the Swifty fandom dissecting lyrics with forensic intensity. In Dress To Impress, you can go deep, or you can just play dress up — the choice is yours.
The ability to go deep into an obsession is mirrored in the ingenious format by which every new round is themed. In my games, I had everything from ‘Galactic Glam’ and ‘Clean Girl/Boy’ to ‘Historical Figures’ and ‘Colourful’ (in which, reader, I was robbed — only placing 4th). They can be general (‘Trick or Treat’) or specific (‘Cottagecore’), but the way to win is to load your outfit with references, to make choices that orientate your style in a culture that relates to others.
This reflects and connects directly to how social media has evolved, in which everything becomes a reference to something else and micro-trends abound. The ability to navigate themes is an everyday occurrence on TikTok’s For You Page and Dress To Impress is speaking this language.
The use of themes allows us to indulge in a feature of modern fashion that we all know to be toxic and are increasingly trying to avoid — fast fashion. Every ten minutes we can try on a new outfit, craft a new statement and share it online, all without consequence or impact — in fact, we can do it all sitting in our pyjamas whilst in bed. It’s this sense of freedom that feels important in the game. Unlike other gamified fashion releases from big brands that feel polished and all about promoting products, Dress To Impress feels genuinely creative and DIY, with its janky, glitchy aesthetic that gives us freedom to play with identity, to explore and experiment — and isn’t that what fashion is all about?
We are starting to see a blur between worlds as Dress To Impress begins to leak out into how we talk about and show our fashion choices. The iconic ‘Pose 28’ is cropping up in people’s fitcheck videos and is even making appearances at New York Fashion Week. Of course, prolific marketer, Charlie XCX has collaborated with the game, but what’s more significant is that CaseOh (the aforementioned legendary player) also has a unique release in the game. And it’s this that makes the game feel so exciting; it is being shaped by the players.
Dress To Impress is so appealing because it reflects how we want to engage with fashion. We want it to be fun, experimental, unpolished and accessible, we want to be able to try things out, to have the freedom to show ourselves and our creativity to the world. Even if we do never make it onto the podium.
Featured image: Dress To Impress screenshots
