Get Acquainted: to Dress up means to put a little bit of thought into ones outfit, clothes, and accessories as a method of dressing for an occasion or creating the occasion.
In general, dressing up is not something that represents a desire for sexual gratification but it is often a way of manifesting our own identities or values. Dressing up could be classist or call for more heteronormative standards, but dressing up is still considered everything inbetween and whatever an individual wants it to be.
This is especially so when we consider how clothes and appearance is a way of demonstrating our gender and sexuality. We might wear colors that make us feel a certain way about our gender or show more skin for nobody but ourself, yet, clothes and appearance and dressing up has allowed for people to play the role of themselves better.
Dressing up could also mean playing different roles. This could mean classic archetypes with gender norms and roles, but it can also be breaking away from those norms. This is where dressing up can become a little intimate and sexual, but the reality is that clothes are not consent.
Moreover, in clothes and dressing up being a way of building confidence, its important we lift each other up and be kind about how other people wear themselves and clothes.