Dress to Impress
Contents |
Host
Narrator: Matt Edmondson
Broadcast
ITV Studios and Accidentally on Purpose for ITV2, 4 September 2017 to 14 February 2020 (60 episodes in 2 series)
Lifted Entertainment and Accidentally on Purpose for ITV2, 24 October to 2 December 2022 (30 episodes in 1 series)
Synopsis
Date the outfit, not the person.
We meet four young single people. Over the next hour, one of them (the chooser) will have five new outfits and one date, courtesy of the other three who will dress them.
The chooser introduces himself to the dressers by a video clip. Each dresser is allowed £150, and 30 minutes of shopping, to find a suitable outfit for the chooser.
Shop till you drop.
Then we see the chooser open all three boxes, read a note, and wear the outfit. Whoever wore the worst outfit is off the show.
Two dressers remain for the second round, effectively a repeat of the first. There's a larger budget - £200 - but still 30 minutes, and we'll still see the chooser pick from the outfits offered.
The winner is unveiled.
This second outfit is relevant for the date, and the chooser wears their preferred outfit to that date. Whoever came up with that outfit gets to go on the date. After the date, we see the pair put their cards on the table, literally saying "Yes" or "No" to another date.
A lot of new ideas here. We viewers see everyone, but the chooser is picking their date blind - all they see are the outfits, not the people behind them. We don't see which outfit is worn to the date, we share the dressers' surprise at the result.
We're not sure that Dress to Impress has quite enough to fill a full hour - it's the same round played twice, with no real difference.
Inventor
Matt Edmondson. He also writes and narrates the show in his own inimitable style.
Theme music
Matt Fisher and Chris Hollis are credited for "Original Music".
Trivia
A family viewing show, the first series went out at 6pm. Surprisingly, two years later, a second series was commissioned to fill the void of endless The Jeremy Kyle Show repeats at 4.55pm. The third series also had to wait two and a half years as, presumably, contestants being let out into shops was judged an unacceptable risk due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It eventually aired in a 7pm slot.
