LONDON — Style gaming app Drest has a brand new look (and angle) that enables gamers to model a greater diversity of branded clothes and accessories on fashions of various physique sorts and ethnicities; getting ready for and “attending” unique occasions such because the Style Awards in London, and interacting on a extra intimate degree with manufacturers and seasonal collections.
The brand new sport launches globally (excluding China) on Tuesday with unique companions Versace and the Style Awards, introduced by Pandora.
The most recent model creates a richer expertise for gamers and permits them to work with total collections and hair and make-up kinds created by real-world manufacturers and expertise. They’ll additionally choose from a wide range of international places for picture shoots and real-life occasions and settings.
Drest, which works with greater than 260 manufacturers, additionally needs to create a “rvr” or real-virtual-real expertise, the place gamers can win prizes out and in of the sport, hone their design abilities with every play, climb degree and Impress the “editor” of your journal with appears for digital periods.
The sport includes interactive journeys and the power for gamers to share their content material out and in of the sport, “turning into lively individuals in a broader cultural dialog,” in keeping with Drest.
The launch is the primary below new Drest co-CEO Daniel Svärd, who joined the corporate earlier this yr.
In an interview with Lucy Yeomans, founder and co-CEO, Svärd mentioned Drest refined its strategy partially as a result of folks not wish to be passive observers.
“They wish to change into lively individuals, co-create content material and really feel like they belong to a group,” he mentioned, including that Drest is taking the core expertise of a vogue styling sport, “and including an editorial story line round it that It’s interactive, participatory and significant. That’s what a vogue expertise is absolutely about.”
Svärd, who was beforehand at King, the Swedish online game developer and writer behind Sweet Crush Saga, mentioned on-line video games can not be “one-dimensional.” The problem for creators now could be to supply a wide range of experiences to maintain folks , taking part in, studying and residing the sport.
He mentioned Drest's video games aren’t about handing customers a digital bag and asking them to design it, however somewhat providing them bigger collections, extra manufacturers and a richer context by which to work.
On the finish of a sport, he needs customers to “stroll away having discovered a few assortment or a model, and about how sure gadgets look in numerous environments and on various kinds of fashions, shapes and our bodies.”
Drest's core viewers is 18-29 yr olds, however Svärd and Yeomans are additionally paying shut consideration to the 29-35 yr outdated group. “There’s a big alternative there due to our merger of video games after which publishing. What we provide is as a lot a content material and artistic expertise as it’s a sport,” mentioned Yeomans.
Yeomans can also be placing its previous expertise into play with this new model of Drest. He mentioned providing a wealthy model expertise is vital for each avid gamers and vogue firms.
“Up to now, once we did one thing with a model, whether or not it was Gucci asking [users] To design a brand new marketing campaign or create appears with Messika jewellery the place Kate Moss was the decide, we had a a lot higher dedication,” she mentioned.
He added that within the gaming surroundings, the rewards are probably very wealthy for manufacturers. By taking a starring function in a Drest sport, they’ll appeal to new audiences and have interaction in enjoyable and novel methods with an current fashion-loving cohort.
He added that the brand new sport permits for “a lot deeper storytelling” and a wide range of manufacturers have come on board.
Additions embody Alaïa, Balmain, Bottega Veneta, Burberry, Chloé, Fendi, Gucci, Loewe, Maison Margiela, Miu Miu, Prada and Valentino. Manufacturers led by their founders are additionally participating, together with Jacquemus, JW Anderson, Marine Serre and Victoria Beckham.
Luxurious jewellery and equipment names within the sport embody Alighieri, Amina Muadi, Cartier, Christian Louboutin and Jimmy Choo.
The Style Awards “VIP Occasion” will likely be launched on Tuesday. Gamers will be capable of work on their appears forward of the royal occasion, which can happen on the Royal Albert Corridor on December 2. Within the digital world, they are going to be capable of work together with Versace and the Style Awards organizers as they embark on artistic journeys. .
For the Style Awards VIP occasion, Drest commissioned British illustrator Alice Tait to create a customized London map that can take gamers on a journey all through West London, from the Style Awards' official companion lodge, The Peninsula, to the Royal Albert Corridor.
Manolo Blahnik can even be a part of the Drest's Style Awards occasion alongside London-based flower supply service Flowerbx, Leica Digicam and Rosewood Motels, whose merchandise will completely seem within the sport.
Yeomans, who spent her profession modifying vogue magazines equivalent to Harper's Bazaar UK and Porter earlier than turning into a gaming entrepreneur, mentioned it was vital for Drest to supply the attributes of a luxurious expertise to its viewers.
That’s, he has paid lots of consideration to the “luxurious ecosystem: the lodges, the flowers, these issues that make a luxurious expertise a luxurious expertise. That's what we're actually specializing in. “We wish to create a deep immersion into that world,” he mentioned.
Wanting forward, Yeomans mentioned it’s speaking to manufacturers about creating extra model challenges the place they’ll probably use belongings from vogue exhibits and vacation spot occasions as backdrops for immersive video games.
Manufacturers, he mentioned, are contemplating repeating the style exhibits with Drest, “utilizing all of the wonderful components they created and repeating the exhibits when their collections really drop.”
Yeomans mentioned manufacturers might additionally take part in a sport a couple of months after their particular occasion, permitting customers to expertise the thrill of real-life editors and stylists who attended the unique occasion.
Drest plans to set challenges round vogue trade figures equivalent to celeb editors, designers and stylists. Gamers may have the chance to make an edit of clothes impressed by every determine's model. Subsequent yr, Drest will start exploring a philanthropic occasions angle.
“We wish Drest to be a pressure for good, one that actually celebrates the wonderful components of this thrilling world, the folks, the product and the depth of storytelling,” Yeomans mentioned.