What does it mean to you to be named a Walpole 2020 Power List winner?
Everything! Striking out on one’s own to pursue an entrepreneurial dream after many years spent working – comfortably and securely – within large companies like Hearst, Conde Nast and most recently Net-a-Porter, is terrifying, exhilarating and exhausting in equal measure, so to have one’s idea and endeavour acknowledged by Walpole, the ultimate champions of and experts in British luxury, is a serious honour.
Why do you think you were named on the List this year?
For pursuing a game-changing idea and challenging the status quo in the luxury fashion industry.
In my previous life as a magazine editor, I always focused on putting my readers needs and desires first, believing this approach would serve our brands and other partners better. DREST takes this sense of "giving the customer what he/she wants" a step further, creating a new content platform based on a response to changing human behaviour - notably the seismic shift towards gaming as entertainment.
When I first conceived the idea of bringing the worlds of luxury fashion and gaming together, creating a positive, inclusive and inspiring space for anyone with an interest in fashion, it felt like a nigh impossible challenge. But today, after a year of soft launch, DREST is poised for its consumer release, with over 200 of the world's top brands on board and a host of exciting global partnerships in fashion, entertainment, beauty and philanthropy. Our new, virtual and sustainable world where everyone can discover and engage with luxury fashion at scale and, if they so desire, go on to shop what they have competed with digitally in real life, is now very much a reality.
www.drest.com
