“We all know the popular Roblox game Dress To Impress, but recently some buzz about the owner Gigi has erupted”--Paloma Bastos 6th grade
What Is Dress To Impress?
Dress To Impress, or DTI for short, is a fashion game on the Roblox platform that was officially released in November 2023. In this game, players have 5 minutes to dress up based on a theme the game randomly picks through a raffle. Then, they compete in a fashion show where they can vote for other players with “stars” ranging from 1 to 5. DTI competed with the popular game “Fashion Famous.” But DTI was unique because of the non-Roblox-looking bodies.
DTI started gaining more traction when the famous game “Royale High” started going downhill. A bunch of drama stirred up and many people were “boycotting” Royale High, due to inappropriate comments said by owner “Callmehbob” and her team. Also Royale High Collabed with toy brand jazewares. Who supports and donates to Isreal towards the war going on between Isreal and Palenstine. So most Royale High players and gaming YouTubers who played Royale High such as Callmehhaley, Royal Dior, and Lukelash, to name a few, now play DTI which helped its rise in popularity. DTI peaked in popularity around mid-2024 when Gigi and her team delivered a huge summer update and a collaboration with Charlie XCX. “The BRAT” update blew up across social media.
The latest DTI update was the Halloween update (one of the biggest updates DTI has endured), which was released on the 19th and has blown up in the past few weeks with 1.1m + people playing the day it was released. The update consists of a storyline with the NPC nail tech “Lana” where players have to complete a 3-step quest to free her.
Who Is Gigi, And What Did She Do?
Gigi (she/her) is the creator of Roblox DTI. Gigi created DTI at the ripe age of only 14 years old, and is now 17. Gigi created one of the most popular games on Roblox (100-700k+ people playing right now) before she could get to college! Gigi listens to her players, hence why the game has been so successful. Although Gigi and her game are so successful, Gigi has been facing some serious allegations with tons of her developers coming out on X (formerly Twitter), Explaining some things she has done and how it worries them.
Gigi is facing allegations of racist comments, fatphobic comments, allegedly inappropriate comments, attempting to frame Sara (Creator of the Roblox game IT GIRL) of rape, and allegedly tried to DMCA strike IT GIRL.
On Roblox, a game called IT GIRL has been played by “famous” Roblox gaming YouTubers. Gigi started to notice IT GIRL slowly rising in popularity. Sara, the creator of IT GIRL, previously tried to work with Gigi, (which also caused Gigi to notice IT GIRL’S rise in popularity) but Gigi approached with rude and out-of-line behavior which upset Sara.
On September 30th, Sara posted a thread stating “Gigi has threatened people with legal action if they speak out about her true behavior…” She also states “I won't tolerate this level of disrespect towards my work or myself.” In this thread, she seems nervous/scared of Gigi taking legal action and her statement causing developers to be fired/punished. Sara uses the word “alleged” even if something is true, so as not to get sued for speaking out about Gigis's wrong behavior.
Developers who work with Gigi claimed that while in their Discord server, Gigi shared a photo of a rather heavier woman claiming it was Sara, and made some fatphobic comments. Gigi contended that IT GIRL was ripping off DTI which caused Gigi to threaten to frame Sara for rape.
A few hours after Sara spoke out, many other people started speaking out against Gigi. People claimed that Gigi had allegedly purchased inappropriate pictures of minors and made racist comments.
Gigi’s Response
Gigi has been very worried about DTI/Her reputation after she was exposed for her behavior. Gigi first responded by saying she never made racist comments or purchased such photos. Gigi has also come out with a “statement” and as well an apology on the public DTI Discord server. She explained she is going to take a break from DTI after the Halloween update, and to apologize for the fatphobic comments she will add “plus size” bodies in DTI which has been asked for a long time.
Gigi claims that most of these things she did happened when she was 14 and that she expressed regret for these things. She claims these things are in the past and she never meant these actions to come out like this. A lot of people are not satisfied with Gigi’s apology, and think Gigi shouldn’t use age as an excuse for her actions. Which is reasonable, since if anyone did anything wrong even if it was 3 years ago, in Gigi's case, they should still be called out.
What People Think
Many of the DTI YouTubers/Players haven’t been talking about it as much as some people thought they would. Many people have been able to “forgive” Gigi, but that doesn't mean she won’t possibly repeat such behaviors. Hopefully, she learned her lesson. Zoey Prenderghast, an everyday DTI player, shared some opinions about this drama.
Her opinion about what Gigi did was very similar to most people. “I think Gigi was totally out of line and very rude but also in a hurt way if that makes sense,” said Prenderghast. Many players were able to forgive Gigi after reading her apology even after all she has done, but Prenderghast says “I haven't read the apology and have no intention to. What she said was out of line, but I don't think it’s my place to forgive her or not.”
This is very understandable since Sara and the developers of DTI should be the ones to forgive/judge Gigi and determine whether or not she deserves their sympathy. Prenderghast is fairly excited about plus-size bodies; she says “I am excited that Gigi is adding plus-size bodies to the game; it is really nice and inclusive.” Many players feel the same way and agree.
Prenderghast hopes any situation like this in DTI will not happen again. Players agree since DTI is one of the most popular games on Roblox right now. Many users have moved on, as this happened from September to early October. The fact that many people just “forgot” about it shows how good/playable DTI is. If it was “Royale High,” people would just not play because, before Royale High’s drama/controversy, people had already stopped playing because of how boring the game was. So that just shows DTI has good structure, fun experience, good looks, and good listeners running the game.
Conclusion
A fun expression to explain why people are still playing DTI even after everything Gigi has done is “Separating the artist from the art.” It pretty much means if you have a favorite artist, game creator, etc, and you love their creation, BUT they have done some questionable things that are just wrong. But you love their creation right? You love it so much you can't let go of it even after everything this person has done. So this expression is used for situations like this and in this case, Gigi is the artist/creator who has done something unacceptable but it hasn’t affected the game at all.
Resources:
https://www.dailydot.com/memes/gigi-dress-to-impress-allegations/
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2500228/dress-to-impress-creator-gigi-faces-unsettling-allegations-from-it-girl-rival
