Dress to Impress is a fashion game released on Roblox that was released on November 11th, 2023, and has recently become popular among people who don’t typically play Roblox games.
At the start of each round, a random theme is selected or users to bace their outfits off of. The players have five minutes to style their characters to match the theme. Players can alter their character’s skin tone, clothing, nails, hair, makeup, and jewelry to represent the theme best. After the five minutes, each user takes turns showing off their look, and everyone rates the final product out for five stars. The person with the most stars wins that round and earns points — which they can spend on new pieces of clothing for future rounds.
The game is easy for users to learn and has the same structure every time you play, so what makes it so popular?
Like most things in this age, social media plays a huge role in its popularity. The game first gained popularity thanks to streamers playing the multiplayer game online for their viewers to watch. From there, the game made its way to TikTok, where it was the source of many trends.
Madison Rivers, sophomore, said, “I found out about the game from social media, and it just seemed fun and like something I wanted to play.”
One of these trends is where people show off their real-life outfits using the Dress to Impress game music, calling it “Dress to Impress IRL” or “Dress to Impress in real life”.
Dress to Impress developers have strategically incorporated other trending topics into the platform to enhance the game’s relevance. This keeps the game circulating through people’s social media feeds making them more likely to play the game.
Natalie Vargas-Kitchens, junior, is an avid Dress-to-Impress player. She refers to the game as, “a pop culture game.”
This is very true, the game bases its round themes on trending aesthetics in popular culture.
Such as Charli XCX’s album, “Brat”, was released this summer and instantly became a trending topic online.
People started using the term “brat girl summer” which Charli XCX said in a TikTok interview that brat means, “You’re just like that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says dumb things sometimes.”
TikTok users took this concept and ran with it. Users made countless videos referring to themselves as “brat”. The “brat” trend was so popular that it made its way into politics; Vice President Kamala Haris rebranded her presidential campaign social media to reflect the “brat” aesthetic to appeal to young voters.
Dress to Impress developers picked up on the viral trend and created a “brat” update for the game. This update features new outfit options and game scenery that match the “brat” aesthetic people are engrossed in.
The game also uses trending aesthetics as the themes for rounds, keeping the game relevant and appealing to older audiences. For example, a theme for a round might be “cottagecore” or “retro glamor”, which are topics popular among an older demographic.
Roblox’s audience is mostly kids, but through social media and trends, Dress to Impress has been able to expand that audience to teenagers and young adults.
Devin Hardy, junior, said, “Fashion is a thing for all ages and the themes they give you for each round are mature and it makes me see clothes in a different way.”
Dress to Impress has effectively incorporated social media and pop culture into an engaging game that applies to a wide demographic, which makes it so popular.
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