“I’m not going to lie to you, I feel very on the spot with the Renaissance theme!” says 26-year-old Beatrice, at the onset of a demo round of Roblox’s Dress to Impress, a digital game where players create outfits to compete in fashion shows. The theme description reads as such: “Historical looks with flowing gowns and tunics.” According to the rules, she’s got five minutes to create a look that satisfies the prompt. Start the clock.

She selects “something gentle” for makeup—apple-rouged cheeks, supersized lashes, and a bee-sting pout. For the hair, “something that’s a little bit poofy”: a bouffant edited a shade darker. Renaissance denotes corsetry; she selects one and assigns it a palette of red and gold, adds custom sleeves and a multi-tier skirt. A crown? Naturally. She throws in a coordinating parasol and platform heels for good measure. “It’s very Renaissance-vibe, isn’t it?”

Dress to Impress was made by four friends in 2023 who wanted a Roblox game that catered to their specific interests. Flash forward to today, the fashion runway game boasts over six billion visits to date with a team of over 30 attending to development, marketing, community management (like Beatrice), and more.

Beatrice ascended to Community Manager of Dress to Impress after years as an influencer on the game making content, as well as being a prominent Twitch streamer and YouTuber. “People in this game love layering,” she says. “The audience seems to really engage with mixing items together to make something that you wouldn’t have even imagined when we were putting the game together.”

There is no standardized panel deeming this look good or bad, no judge critiquing her on historical accuracy. Instead, users compete in fashion shows and a court of competitors rates the ensembles, with scores totalled at the end to crown a winner. The goal is to advance from a “New Model” to a “Top Model.” Things that impress? Maximalism, creativity, and general “vibes.”

Thanks to low barriers to entry—you don’t need many technical skills, nor do you need to pay to play (though you can purchase add-ons)—Dress to Impress and the larger Roblox platform is largely oriented towards kids.

Still, the Dress to Impress user demographic skews older than most of Roblox. 63 per cent of users are over 13 (43 per cent are over 18) compared to 51 per cent in the larger Roblox community—though the latter saw 25 per cent growth for 17-24 year olds last year. “It’s really their ability to harness what’s happening in culture and what’s happening on the platform and bring those two together in a single epicenter,” explains Winnie Burke, Roblox’s head of fashion and retail, of their broader success. The marketing and development team, Burke says, are “taking cues from what’s happening in the physical world, they’re taking cues from what’s happening on other social platforms.”