Viral Roblox dress-up game Dress to Impress first hit my radar a few months ago via TikTok algorithm. Several gameplay videos showed off what looked like an ‘00s-era Bratz game: big-lipped, big-headed femme characters with bedroom eyes in a variety of skimpy outfits walking down a runway and posing at the end of it while a simple dance beat plays in the background.
I didn’t really understand the allure, and like many Roblox games, Dress to Impress seems to be mostly played by children. But before long, Dress to Impress (or DTI as those in the know call it) was everywhere—in my day-long charity event, in my friend group, on the streams of high-profile influencers like CaseOh and Madison Beer. Earlier this month, it peaked at well over 370,000 concurrent players, according to fan-run Roblox site Rolimon’s. So what’s the special sauce that’s making Dress to Impress so popular? And who is behind this viral fashion game?
How to dress to impress
The Dress to Impress concept is simple: you join a server, are given a theme (like “Dark Coquette” or “Holiday” or “Heroes Vs Villains”), and have a few minutes to put together an outfit from a curated selection, style your hair, do your makeup, and paint your nails. When the time is up, you walk down the runway, choosing a few poses to pull at the end of your strut. Players in your lobby will award each look between one and five stars, and the top three will get podium placement. Then, you rinse and repeat this process with a new theme.
Dress to Impress leans into one of the funnier elements of gaming: panic. There’s not a ton of time to put together your look, and there are separate timers for hair styling and skin tone selection that make it especially stressful for a new player trying to figure out how to navigate the menus. The clubby Y2K music speeds up as you near the end of the round, but you can’t make your character walk any faster than a stroll, so hilarity ensues in the final moments, especially if you’ve accidentally forgotten to give her a face (I did twice). Plus, a jump button hilariously ragdolls these wannabe models, which makes for pure chaos in the dressing room. The first round I play, I can’t figure out how to take any of the clothes off, so I walk out with three pairs of shoes on, each heel visually clipping through the other, tears in my eyes from laughing so hard.
There are ways to have a leg up on the competition, and it’s not just having a good eye for fashion. You can use Robux to buy better outfits and flashier accessories, which means the people (again, ostensibly kids) willing to fork over real money for in-game advantages will often win every round. $6,000 in Dress To Impress costs 1,500 Robux, and $20 will get you 1,700 Robux, though, confusingly, some of the outfits available for purchase can only be bought with Robux, not DTI dollars. As for how far your cash will go—not very: A cute flouncy skirt and shirt set will run you $1,800 in Dress to Impress money, while a shimmery faux-nude number costs $5,000, though any clothes you buy will at least remain unlocked on your DTI account for future use.
So far I’ve only played Dress to Impress the free way, pulling items from the mannequins that don’t cost any Robux or DTI dollars. I’ve played about a dozen rounds and only made the podium once during an Elements-themed showcase in which I put my model in head-to-toe flame print. This shit is rigged (and yes, there do appear to be cheaters who can “bot” the votes).
Everyone’s dressing to impress
The Dress to Impress Discord server has over 237,000 members at the time of publication, many of whom are teenagers (including those in the developer channel). But Dress to Impress is taking the gaming world by storm, breaking out of Roblox containment in a manner heretofore unseen, ushering in new, older players to join the relatively young player base.
Interestingly, despite how youthful many of the players I encounter are, putting together a look in Dress to Impress feels like dressing background characters for a Euphoria episode—the models walk on Barbie tip-toes even without heels on, their bodies are uniformly thin and big-boobed, the makeup options offer siren eyes and Kylie Jenner lips pre-dissolution of her filler. And the game recently announced a partnership with pop superstar Charli XCX to promote her latest studio album, Brat. The looks for the Dress to Impress x Brat collection include thongs peeking out over miniskirts, sky-high heels with straps that lace all the way up the model’s legs, and PVC two-pieces.
But again, this is ostensibly a children’s game, and the people behind it all appear to be rather young as well. The dev channel on the official Discord has intros for those working behind the scenes on Dress to Impress. Many of them are teenagers who live all over the globe (Lebanon, Hungary, Thailand) and worship pop stars like Charli XCX, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, and Rihanna. The “owner” of Dress to Impress, known only as Gigi, is herself 17 years old. A 14 year old claims to be one of the game’s 3D modelers, showcasing just how impressively talented the youth of today is—and reminding us of the questionable morality that is Roblox content created via child labor. Roblox was recently banned in Turkey amid concerns over child exploitation, and in April, Roblox Studio head Stefano Corazza suggested that the game was “a gift” for “15 year olds, in Indonesia, living in the slums.”
I reached out to a few Dress to Impress devs, as well as Roblox PR, but didn’t get a response in time for publication. While I wait, you can find me trying to get on that damn podium again, paying players be damned.
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