DREST partners with Gucci to take beauty and gaming to the next level

DREST, the luxury fashion and beauty styling app, has partnered with Gucci and promises to take beauty and gaming to the next level with a new "close up mode".

The partnership positions DREST, with its new BEAUTY MODE, as the exclusive luxury beauty launch partner for GUCCI BEAUTY – a line dedicated to the Alessandro Michele's, the house's creative director, vision of beauty.

GUCCI BEAUTY reflects the idea that make-up is "a way to show one’s character and personality, with self-expression and diversity at the core of each product".

The collection will feature exclusively on DREST's BEAUTY MODE from 1-8 October in conjunction with the launch of Palette Beauté Des Yeux Floral, the first eye shadow palette from the house.

DREST gamers will be able to use the new palette, along with lipsticks, eyeliners, nail polish, mascara and more on two beauty shoots (using the app's hyper-realistic avatars) and two mood boarding challenges.

All BEAUTY MODE challenges will be free to play and shoppable via direct links to the partners’ e-commerce platforms. Players who engage with BEAUTY MODE will also be gifted a digital beauty product which can be used in later challenges. 

DREST was founded by its CEO Lucy Yeomans, who is well known in the luxury space having previously been editor in chief at Harper's Bazaar, Net-A-Porter and PORTER magazine.

“Beauty has been on my agenda since I conceived the idea of DREST 10 years ago. As a magazine editor, I witnessed the power of beauty and its ability to influence fashion and vice versa. I love how beauty, like fashion, is a creative form of experimentation, discovery, and self-expression which is why it belongs on DREST. The challenge for us was getting BEAUTY MODE right and showcasing beauty in a way that excites and delights our players and our partnering brands," Yeomans said.

In order to make BEAUTY MODE as realistic as possible, DREST looked at more than 4,000 images of close-up model poses and set up technical photoshoots with professional models to make sure every detail was as natural and life-like as possible.

"We then applied each make-up item to our avatars individually to ensure we correctly matched skin tones and got the cosmetic placement right as every avatar has a different face shape, eye shape, lip size etc. For this, we deferred to the expertise of our Consultant Make-up Artist, Mary Greenwell, involving months of discussion and iterations!”added Yeomans.

Following the Gucci partnership, unbranded BEAUTY MODE challenges will go live on the app from January 2022.

DREST launched for early access in October 2019 and has partnered with some of the leading brands in luxury, who are looking to attract a new generation of consumer and drive deeper engagement with their audience. Big names such as Bottega Veneta, Prada, Off- White, Loewe, Chloé, Thom Browne, Burberry and Stella McCartney have all staged challenges on the app, which features items from 160 leading brands.

Recently the app moved into the hard luxury space via a partnership with Cartier.