Changing the Game of Fashion– Exclusive interview with the founder of DREST, Lucy Yeomans

WORDS:OLIVIA MORRIS

Changing the Game of Fashion

Entering into a new realm of fashion, DREST is the first luxury convergence platform combining gamification, shopping, creative content and philanthropy. Founded by editor- in-chief turned-entrepreneur Lucy Yeomans in 2019, she discusses all facets of DREST, from its inception to where it stands today

What inspired you to go into the world of fashion? After graduating from university, I decided to move to Paris for a few months and landed an internship at a small fashion magazine called Boulevard in Paris. I quickly found myself in a world that combined everything I was interested in – design, photography, art, architecture – along with an entirely new passion to me – fashion. I ended up staying for three years, having been given the job of arts editor. As it was a small team, I had to turn my hand to pretty much everything: writing captions as well as larger profiles; researching pictures as well as working on layouts, and also, excitingly, organising the celebrity covers and fashion shoots. One minute I would be writing about the latest rising star of the French ballet, then next I would be setting up a cover shoot with Kristin Scott Thomas (a Paris resident) or Catherine Deneuve. I will always remember attending my first fashion show by the designer Hervé Léger. I didn’t have a seat and was standing right at the back of the room, but the moment the supermodels – Cindy, Naomi and Christy – hit the runway in his famous bandage mini dresses made quite an impression. It was an incredible introduction to the world of magazines and fashion and I never looked back. Can you talk us through your career prior to launching DREST? After four years in Paris, I returned to England and wrote for the national newspapers before moving to be a deputy editor, firstly at Tatler and then at British Vogue. I was 29 when I accepted the editorship of a magazine then called Harper’s & Queen – I was the youngest editor in the UK ever to edit a glossy magazine – and after a few years, led its transformation to Harper’s Bazaar in line with its international sister titles.

Twelve years later, I was hungry for new challenges. The media landscape was rapidly changing, and so was the way women read and consumed fashion. I had worked at Condé Nast with Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet and while our career paths had diverged, we would often meet up after the fashion shows in Paris or Milan and discuss our idea of creating a global fashion magazine that combined content with commerce. And so in 2012, I moved to Net-a-Porter to become their global content director, overseeing the launch of their new media division: we launched a weekly digital magazine called the Edit (2013), which was followed by a global fashion bi-monthly print magazine Porter in 2014. I left in February 2019 to set up DREST, and here I am. You launched DREST in 2019 and it really is a game-changing concept. Where did the inspiration for combining gaming with fashion come from? I first became fascinated by the world of gaming over 10 years ago, watching both my nephews playing the new Harry Potter game and then also seeing my Facebook feed filling up with posts from friends inviting me to play a new game called Farmville. I was drawn to the compelling storytelling and incredible interactivity of the experience and kept thinking how amazing it would be if there were a game relevant to me and something I was passionate about and interested in. At the time, I didn’t think the luxury fashion industry would be ready to embrace gaming, but as the years went on I saw both the number of people gaming escalating - as well as a shift in the profile of gamers (over 60 per cent of mobile gamers are now women) - and the luxury brands looking for ways to engage a new audience, and decided to pursue the idea of creating the world’s first luxury fashion game: the concept was simple: to create a game where players were given the tools a fashion stylist has access to – the latest clothes, models, great hair and makeup, the locations – and challenge them to create their own fashion looks, thus allowing them to showcase their creative talent and even get noticed by the fashion industry itself. Can you talk us through the concept? DREST is the world’s first luxury fashion and beauty game played on your mobile phone. Players adopt the role of a fashion stylist, responding to daily styling and mood board challenges inspired by real-time fashion news (think red carpet events, a specific trend, a celebrity look). They use the latest products from the world’s leading luxury fashion and beauty brands to style our diverse range of model avatars – including five real-life supermodels; Irina Shayk, Imaan Hammam, Natalia Vodianova, Precious Lee and Candice Huffine – and create unique mood boards. Our digital fashion assortment is provided by both Farfetch and brands directly and includes the likes of Prada, Fendi and Gucci and enables users to shop the content they have created and competed with virtually seamlessly in real life, should they wish to. Our beauty looks come courtesy of global

IMAGE: SUPPLIED

experts including Sam McKnight (hair) and Mary Greenwell (make-up). How have things evolved since you launched DREST over two years ago? A day at DREST is like a month in the magazine world. Everything moves so fast, with each day providing education and bringing new challenges. As a magazine editor, I was used to creating an issue and then moving on to the next. At DREST, we evolve our product every two weeks as we plan for its long-term growth and development at the same time, which makes the pace at which we work insanely fast. When we started talking to brands about the DREST concept, for many of them it was the first time they had experienced the idea of virtual products, and gaming was a world they hadn’t really considered tapping into. They weren’t aware that so many mobile gamers are women – 63 per cent in fact – and how phenomenally engaged this audience is. Now ‘gaming’ and ‘the metaverse’ is being embraced as the fashion future and our conversations with brands are not about explaining the concept, but exploring how far we can take it. The concept of DREST is definitely shaking up the fashion space. What made you decide to make the leap from editorial and e-commerce to tech? Whatever role I’ve worked in, my main focus has always been on the woman and the consumer – speaking to her, listening to her and engaging with her where she is. That has never changed. What has changed is where she is and how she engages with fashion and brands. There are 2.3 billion mobile gamers across the globe, and 63 per cent of them are female. It’s estimated that by the end of 2023 there will be 400 million new gamers entering the market. So, to connect with her in 2022 and beyond, you need to listen, learn and adapt. How would you describe the DREST woman? Creative, engaged and competitive. Our average DREST user spends on average 33 minutes a day in-app and seven minutes per session, completing five sessions a day. She loves sharing her five-star ratings with her social media followers and tagging us. And one of her biggest goals is to feature on our leadership board, where we show all DREST players who created the highest-scoring looks. How are you scaling DREST’s business model when it comes to the Middle Eastern market and what does this region mean to you? Our top five territories – where we have the most players – are presently the US, the UK, Italy, the Middle East and France. I know from my Harper’s Bazaar and Net-a-Porter days how engaged Middle Eastern women (and men) are with luxury fashion and beauty so this territory is vitally important to DREST. We were thrilled when supermodel Imaan Hammam signed to DREST a year ago as one of our supermodel avatars – she has quickly become one of our most popular model avatars. My ambition is to have more Middle Eastern brands on DREST which we’ve been working on for some time now – maybe this feature will help make that happen. Have you seen any specific trends when it comes to the Middle Eastern market? The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is one of the fastest-growing gaming markets, with a growth rate of 14.5 per cent year-over-year in 2020 and is currently valued at $5.4 billion. The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are on the frontier of this growth due to housing the highest populations of gamers. There are 21.1 million gamers in Saudi Arabia alone who have contributed $1 billion in 2020 to revenues secured by the global gaming market. Furthermore, what’s exciting is that data tells us women and men are equally matched when it comes to playing. In mobile gaming specifically, though, women dominate with 73 per cent of players being female. It feels like gaming is about to explode in the Middle East. In business, what is a philosophy you live by? Trust your instincts. I’ve seen many incredibly talented, intelligent and competent women suffer from imposter syndrome. The feeling of not believing you are good enough to either inhabit a role, deliver a task, reach the next rung on the ladder or set out on their own. My advice is always to trust your instincts, trust your intellect and know that there are lots of successful people out there who know less than you, but whose confidence and self-belief have enabled them to thrive and lead. As a famous person once said: “Yes you can.” What are some of the key lessons you have learned throughout your career? Listen to your audience. Get to know them as much as you possibly can. That way you’ll be able to make sure you’re giving them what they need and want, as well as being able to look around corners to see what they need and want next! They are who you need to impress and wow every single day, not just the industry you are in. What have been the hurdles you’ve had to overcome throughout your career? There have been too many to list, and I’m sure there will be many more, but overcoming these have helped me to grow, to learn and to get to where I am now. The world and technology is moving so fast that there will always be challenges you have to overcome in areas where your experience and knowledge are lighter. My favourite word to add to a sentence is: “I don’t know about [insert challenging subject] yet.” This is The Future Issue – what do you envision for the future of DREST? Oh wow, where do I start?! DREST’s future is an exciting roadmap full of fashion, beauty, travel, and film partnerships as well as innovative new game features and new model avatars. We also have menswear and a ‘selfie’ avatar project in the pipeline. Most importantly, we will continue to evolve as our players and their lives and desires evolve so we can continue to serve them content, features, brands they want to see on DREST. Oh, and there’s the tiny matter of something called the metaverse?! But that’s a whole new feature entirely…

“Whatever role I’ve worked in, my main focus has always been on the woman and the consumer – speaking to her, listening to her and engaging with her where she is. That has never changed.”