Dress to Impress, often shortened to DTI, is a dress-up game on Roblox in which players are given a theme and a few minutes to put together an outfit, then walk a catwalk while everyone else votes. Steampunk is one of the themes the game can set, and it puzzles a lot of players, because steampunk is a real style with its own history and it is not obvious at first glance what it is. That is why so many people search for steampunk DTI ideas.
This guide explains how the game works, what steampunk really means, which kinds of pieces and colours say steampunk to anyone watching, and five looks to try. It finishes with how to turn a look from the game into a real outfit, for anyone who would like to wear the style off the screen too. The game's wardrobe changes with every update, so this guide talks about kinds of pieces, a hat, a corset, a long coat, rather than promising that any particular item is in the game when you play.
What Dress to Impress is
Roblox
Roblox is an online platform for building and playing games, run by the Roblox Corporation and open to the public since 2006. Anyone can make a game on it with its own building tool, Roblox Studio, and share it with other players; since 2021 Roblox has called these games experiences. Roblox is free to play, but it has its own currency, Robux, which players buy with real money and spend on items and on some games.
The game
Dress to Impress is one of those games. It was made by a group of developers called the Dress To Impress Group and released on 11 November 2023. By July 2024 it had become a viral hit, helped along by livestreamers and by a collaboration with the singer Charli XCX's album Brat, and in September 2024 it often had more players at once than any other game on Roblox. At the 2024 Roblox Innovation Awards it won three prizes, among them Best New Experience.
How a round works
Every round follows the same pattern:
- The game gives every player the same theme.
- Players have 360 seconds, six minutes, to build an outfit from a large showroom of clothes, wearing up to 18 items. As well as clothes, they can change make-up, skin tone, nail colour and the colours of the clothing.
- When the time runs out, each player walks the catwalk, using poses to show off the outfit.
- The other players rate each look from one to five stars.
- The looks are ranked by their total stars, and the top three stand on a podium.
Players can also compete in pairs, and a free play mode lets you dress up with no clock and no competition, which is a good place to practise a theme before you meet it in a round. Players gain ranks as they play, and higher ranks unlock more items. Normally you cannot choose the theme; it arrives when the round begins.
What the votes mean
The stars are other players' opinions, given in a few seconds as each look walks past. There is no official marking scheme for a theme, and nothing guarantees a score. This guide cannot tell you what wins. What it can do is explain what steampunk is, so that your look says steampunk clearly to anyone who knows the style, and that is the part you control.
What the steampunk theme asks for
The game's themes run from decades and colours to jobs and internet aesthetics, and include fashion styles such as mall goth, Y2K and formal. Steampunk is among them. Unlike a colour or a decade, it is a whole imagined world, and the outfit has to suggest that world in a glance.
What steampunk is
Steampunk is a style that imagines the Victorian age, roughly the nineteenth century, as if the future its writers dreamed of had really arrived. Think of airships in the sky, brass machines in every workshop, submarines and time machines, and everyone still dressed for 1880. It has three ingredients: the Victorian age, steam and clockwork, and a future that never came. Our guide to what steampunk is explains each one, and how to recognise the look.
Where the name comes from
The style grew out of books. Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, published as a book in 1870, sent Captain Nemo round the world in his submarine, the Nautilus. H. G. Wells's The Time Machine, published in 1895, followed an unnamed Victorian inventor, the Time Traveller, into the far future. A century later, in a letter printed in the April 1987 issue of the science fiction magazine Locus, the American writer K. W. Jeter suggested the word steampunk for the Victorian fantasies that he and two friends were writing, as a joking twist on cyberpunk, a kind of science fiction about computers. In 1990 William Gibson and Bruce Sterling's novel The Difference Engine, set in a Victorian Britain with working mechanical computers, did a great deal to spread the idea. The clothes came later, as people began to dress as the characters of that imagined world.
That history is useful in the game, because it tells you who you are dressing as: not a Victorian lady or gentleman on an ordinary day, but someone from an adventure story, an inventor, an explorer, an airship captain, a traveller in time.
What that means for an outfit
In clothes, steampunk comes down to two layers. Underneath is a Victorian shape: long skirts, corsets, high-necked blouses, waistcoats, long coats, top hats and boots. On top are the workings of the machine age: brass, leather straps and buckles, goggles, gears and the tools of an inventor or explorer. The idea that ties them together is that the workings are on show. A Victorian hid her corset under her dress; a steampunk wears it on the outside.
What it is easily confused with
Steampunk is often mixed up with three nearby styles, and knowing the difference helps you choose pieces quickly. Victorian on its own is the real period dress without any machinery. Gothic leans on black, silver, lace and a mood of night and mourning. Pirate looks share the boots, the coats and the leather but come from an older century. A steampunk look borrows from all three, then adds the brass and the goggles that none of them has.
The pieces that read as steampunk in the game
With 18 items and six minutes, every piece has to earn its place. These are the kinds of piece that carry the steampunk idea, and why each one works. Look for whatever the wardrobe has of each kind when you play.
On the head
A top hat is the single most recognised steampunk hat. A small one worn at an angle, a tall one, or a bowler all work. If the wardrobe offers goggles, they are the badge of the style, worn on the hat brim or round the neck rather than over the eyes. Round glasses with tinted lenses do the same job if there are no goggles. Our guide to steampunk goggles explains why they matter so much.
The middle: a corset or a waistcoat
A corset worn over a blouse, or a waistcoat over a shirt, gives an outfit its Victorian waist straight away. A corset in brown, black or a rich colour, with buckles or straps, says steampunk more clearly than almost anything else. A high-necked blouse with long or puffed sleeves underneath it keeps the look in period.
The skirt or the trousers
A long skirt, a layered skirt, or a skirt that is short at the front and long at the back all suit the theme. Trousers or breeches tucked into tall boots suit an aviator or an explorer. Very short skirts and modern jeans pull the look away from the Victorian age.
The coat
A long coat, fitted at the waist, or a short cropped jacket over a corset, gives the outfit its outline on the catwalk. A military-style coat with buttons down the front suits an airship captain.
Boots, gloves and the finishing touches
Boots, rather than trainers or high-fashion heels, finish the look. Gloves, a belt with pouches, a chain that could be a watch chain, a necklace with a gear or a cameo, and anything that looks like a tool or an instrument all add the machine age. Keep to a few: a steampunk outfit covered in accessories looks cluttered on the catwalk, just as it does in real life.
The 2025 Steampunk Set
For Halloween 2025 the game added a set of three pieces with the style's own name: a Steampunk Corset, a Steampunk Skirt and a Steampunk Mask, the mask counting as headwear. According to the records of the game's community wiki, it was added on 18 October 2025 for holders of the Baddie Pass, as part of the Halloween collection, and is marked as a limited-time set that can no longer be obtained. Items like these come and go with the game's events, which is the main reason to know the style rather than rely on any one item.
Using the six minutes
Six minutes goes quickly, so it helps to have an order of work before the round begins. A sensible one is the order a real steampunk outfit is built in. First decide on a character, in a word: inventor, aviator, captain. Then choose the base, a blouse or shirt and a skirt or trousers. Then the corset or waistcoat. Then the coat. Then the hat and goggles, which are what people notice first. Then set the colours, and spend whatever time is left on boots, gloves and one or two small details. If the clock is nearly out, a clear Victorian outline in brown and brass with a top hat is better than a half-finished look with every accessory.
Toggles and layering
Some items in the game have toggles that change how they look, and several pieces can be layered. A corset over a blouse, a coat over both, and a belt over the coat is the order a real steampunk outfit is built in, and the same order works in the game.
Colours that read as steampunk
Because the game lets you change the colours of the clothing, colour is the one thing you can always control, whatever pieces the wardrobe offers that day. It is also the thing that tells people most quickly what you are wearing.
The core palette
Steampunk's colours come from its materials: brown in every shade from tan to chocolate, cream, rust, burgundy, bottle green, navy, grey and black, with brass, gold, copper and bronze for the metal. They are warm, slightly worn colours, the colours of a workshop, a library or the cabin of an airship.
How to use them
A simple rule works well. Choose one main colour for the biggest pieces, such as a brown coat and skirt. Choose one or two accent colours for the corset or waistcoat, such as burgundy or bottle green. Then make every metal detail a warm gold or brass, and keep it the same throughout. A look in brown, cream and brass says steampunk to almost anyone who knows the style.
What pulls a look away
Neon colours, bright pinks and blues, and silver as the main metal pull a look away from steampunk. Silver with a lot of black tends to say gothic instead. If you want something brighter, follow the Victorians themselves, who loved strong purples, greens and reds; a deep purple or emerald corset sits well against brown and brass.
Make-up, hair and nails
The same palette works for the rest. Warm browns and coppers on the eyes, a deep red or berry lip, and nails in a dark red, a bronze or a gold all suit the theme. Hair worn up, in a bun or a braided crown, suits the Victorian line, and so does a bright colour under a small top hat, which is a familiar sight at real steampunk gatherings.
Five looks to try
These five steampunk DTI looks are described as kinds of pieces, not named items, so they can be built from whatever the wardrobe holds when you play. Each one is a character from the steampunk world, and a character is the quickest way to make a look hang together.
1. The inventor
A white high-necked blouse or shirt, a brown or burgundy corset or waistcoat, and a dark long skirt or trousers. Goggles pushed up on the head or on a small hat. Gloves, a belt with pouches, and anything that looks like a tool. Colours: brown, cream and brass. The idea is someone who has just stepped out of a workshop.
2. The airship aviator
A short jacket over a cream shirt, a corset or a fitted waistcoat, and trousers or breeches tucked into tall boots. A cap or small hat with goggles. A scarf at the neck if there is one. Colours: tan, brown and dark green, with brass. This look moves well on the catwalk because its outline is so clear.
3. The airship captain
A long coat with buttons down the front, a waistcoat or corset beneath, and tall boots. A top hat or a peaked cap. Gloves and a belt. Colours: navy or black with gold or brass for every button and buckle. The look says command at a glance.
4. The society lady
A long dress or a long layered skirt in burgundy, plum or bottle green, with a fitted bodice or corset and a high lace collar. A small top hat at an angle, with a single pair of goggles on the brim. Lace gloves, a necklace and a parasol if the wardrobe has one. This is the most elegant of the five, and shows how little steampunk detail a good Victorian outfit needs.
5. The gothic steampunk
Black all through: a black blouse with a high collar, a black corset, a long black skirt and a long black coat. A black top hat with dark goggles. Then one warm metal, a dark bronze or gold, for the buckles and the jewellery, so the look stays steampunk rather than tipping into plain gothic. It is the darker side of the style, the inventor who works by candlelight.
From the game to a real outfit
Many people who meet steampunk through a theme round find they like the style enough to want to wear it. The good news is that the thinking is exactly the same off the screen: a Victorian base, a few workings on show, a warm palette, and a character to hold it all together.
Start with the base
In real life, as in the game, the base matters most: a blouse or shirt, a waistcoat or corset, a long skirt or trousers, and boots. Plain clothes in natural fabrics and quiet colours make the best start. Our complete guide to steampunk fashion goes through the whole outfit piece by piece, with separate guides to women's steampunk outfits and men's steampunk outfits.
Spend very little
Most of a real steampunk outfit can come from what you already own and from charity shops: waistcoats from old suits, long skirts, high-necked blouses, leather belts and boots. Goggles, gauges and gears can be made at home from cheap materials. Our guide to a steampunk costume on a budget explains how.
Keep the character
The character you chose in the game is a good starting point for a real outfit too. An inventor needs a waistcoat, rolled shirtsleeves, goggles and a few tools. An aviator needs a short jacket, breeches, boots and a flying cap. A society lady needs a long skirt, a fitted bodice and a small hat. Once you know who you are dressing as, every piece you buy or make has a reason, and you avoid the most common mistake in real steampunk, which is adding things at random until the outfit looks like a heap of parts.
Comfort counts for more in real life
A game outfit only has to last a catwalk. A real one may have to last a whole day. Boots need wearing in, coats need to come off when it is warm, and hats need pinning. A real corset should never be laced so tight that breathing or moving is hard, and if you feel faint, take it off.
Wearing it out
Steampunk gatherings are held across Britain; for where people meet, see our guide to UK events. When you are ready for one, our guide to what to wear to your first steampunk event covers the day itself. The outfit that said steampunk on the catwalk will very likely say it in a market square too.