New styling app Drest combines gaming with ecommerce

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Oct 3, 2019

Lucy Yeomans, the founding editor-in-chief of Net-A-Porter’s Porter magazine who announced her exit in January, has revealed her latest venture: a luxury styling game for creative fashionistas.

Launching in early access mode on 8 October, Drest is a platform where users adopt the role of a fashion stylist and are briefed with creative challenges. With the possibility to choose everything from the “models”, fashion, hair, make up, locations and backdrops, players will be able to share their visual creations in-app and across social media and compete against each other.

But the app is more than just a game. It combines user-generated storytelling with brand interaction and e-commerce, paving the way for a completely new product class. Tapped as a launch partner, Italian luxury brand Gucci will kick things off with a six-month collaboration that will include a series of weekly challenges engaging users with its Fall/Winter 2019 collection.

This means players will be able to style, express and play with a select assortment of Gucci ready-to-wear, bags, shoes and accessories - and more importantly, they can shop the product they style in real time. 

Farfetch, the luxury fashion marketplace, will provide the majority of the fashion assortment on the app and there will be also a curation of products from independent brands. Drest will act as an affiliate partner to Farfetch, charging a commission fee for every transaction.

“I wanted to create a democratic and highly inventive new fashion experience that engages the Millennial and Gen Z audiences – who place such high value on individuality and self- expression - as well as delighting and surprising existing fashion lovers and consumers,” said Drest creator,  founder and co-CEO Lucy Yeomans.

“I am thrilled to open up the incredible story-telling and creativity of the fashion world to a wider audience, and to offer brands a highly interactive, playful and immersive way to connect with global consumers.”

The app also has a philanthropic side, partnering with models, influencers and activists to support a range of causes. The models will be featured as avatars in the platform, with their campaigns being highlighted in the editorial narrative. Drest said in the future it plans to donate 5% of every in-game micro-transaction to these causes, which support everything from digital responsibility, mental health, body positivity to female empowerment.

“It is important to me that this new platform showcases fashion as a force for good,” Yeomans explained. “In addition to ensuring that our content speaks to key issues and causes, we will be announcing a number of important philanthropic partnerships to time with our full launch in 2020.”

Drest launches in an early access mode on 8 October with a waitlisted approach to on-boarding users in advance of the full launch in early 2020. Users across the world can download the app on The App Store and Google Play and enjoy early access to a range of features being released over the next months, including augmented community, enhanced in-game economy, modesty mode and beauty.