Ever Wanted To Style A Supermodel? Now’s Your Chance

Drop the sourdough starter, knitting needles and crafting twine: there’s a new welcome distraction that’s a better use of your spare time. Thanks to Lucy Yeomans’s savvy app Drest, smartphone users can take a break from scrolling to instead try their hand at styling five trailblazing supermodels. Irina Shayk, Natalia Vodianova, Precious Lee, Imaan Hammam and Candice Huffine take form as hyper-realistic avatars on the app, each with an array of different hairstyles created by stylist to the stars Sam McKnight.

The women were captured by multiple cameras and scanners from every angle in order to realise their incredibly lifelike features, adopting a range of facial expressions and poses that could all then be translated virtually. “When I saw the final result, I thought, ‘That’s me, it looks like me,’” Shayk tells British Vogue. “I never thought that something like that could happen – I was so surprised that it was even possible.”

Individual and group photoshoot challenges, shopping trips and dress-up sessions are just a handful of the playful adventures the digital supermodels can embark on, and users can browse virtual versions of cult items from the likes of Bottega Veneta, Burberry, Stella McCartney, Prada and Fenty (to name a few).

Keen to introduce a philanthropic element, Drest has pledged to match 50 per cent of revenue earned by the supermodels through players’ fees to donate to their charities of choice, with future plans to give five per cent of every in-app micro transaction to “causes that support diversity and inclusion, digital responsibility, mental health and female empowerment”.

Launched in the days before coronavirus, Drest has become an ideal activity for fashion fans looking for a fun way to while away an hour or two in lockdown – Irina included. “It’s a lot of fun to get dressed, without getting dressed yourself,” she laughs. “That’s what I do for a job, trying on outfits. But now I can try it on my avatar and see what looks good.”

The runway regular admits to “living in sweatpants” in the early days of lockdown (though her take on loungewear is a Skims velour tracksuit pepped up with By Far boots). But school runs with her daughter have provided opportunities for the supermodel to trade her sweats for sleeker alternatives. “It brightens up my day.”