Do you know what ‘slay’ now means?

Have you been living a Brat summer?

But if all those words sounded alarmingly unfamiliar… allow me to introduce you to Dress to Impress.

A collage of three Dress to Impress looks, ranging from alien-like green skin to a sparkling cowgirl hat.

Each round is frenetic, requiring players to dash between mannequins and makeup stations to achieve their perfect look.

It’s a simple yet brilliant idea, and one that has clearly found an audience.

It has been visited by players over 2.3 billion times.

A podium finish for the theme ‘Brat’ in dress to impress. The players are all women dressed in bright green outfits. The winner has green skin, holds an apple, and is wearing a cut-out black dress.

It seems likely there are a few factors at play here.

It leans into current fashion trends, with plenty of Y2K, grunge and coquette-themed items to choose from.

Good-old video game jank.

Strutting on the catwalk in Dress to Impress wewaring a yellow dress with black frills.

I know what you’re thinking: what?

Surely jank is a bad thing?

Dress to Impress doesn’t care about this at all.

Three layered outfits made by Emma in Dress to Impress. One is a white dress with black gloves, another is grey and desaturated blue, while another is in all black.

Much like Brat summer, it embraces being a hot mess.

This enormous flexibility grants greater creative freedom than most dress-up games would typically permit.

Need a mid-length dress with an off-shoulder neckline?

A female character in Dress to Impress, with green skin and floating arms. She has makeup with stitches and earrings that look like a metal bolt through her head.

Combine a basic dress with a bardot top.

Need an alien-looking hairstyle?

Blend several braid haircuts together.

A player performs a death drop on the Dress to Impress runway. The game’s animations mean that she slides across the floor in an unnatural manner. The female character is unfinished and resembles a mannequin, with blue skin and no facial features.

This opens up all sorts of possibilities for messing around with silhouettes, necklines and accessories.

Don’t even get me started on Pose 28.

So where does this leave us?

An outfit in Dress to Impress, showing futuristic blue looks and long turqoise hair

That being said, I do think that Dress to Impress is a game that couldonlyhave come from Roblox.

After all, who doesn’t remember their firstSkyrim space launch?

Players also love being able to bend the rules and discover unintended ways of playing a game myself included.

So then, game developers: think twice before you eliminate that amusing bug your community found.

In the eyes of your players, it could be one of your game’s most memorable features.