Closet Chaos, Conscious Style + Resiliency with Lacy Cadieux-McLean (Part 1)

Your closet might be doing more than holding clothes. It might be quietly adding stress, feeding decision fatigue, and exposing you to materials you have never once seen listed on a tag. We sit down with Lacey Kazoo McLean, founder and CEO of Rubia, to unpack the hidden problem inside modern professional fashion and the surprisingly hopeful ways to fix it.

We talk about what pushes so many of us back to synthetics and fast fashion: the lack of truly tailored sustainable options, the time crunch of real life, and the fact that an organic cotton blazer or bamboo shirt can be painfully hard to find if you still want structure and polish. Lacey shares how her background in IT project management and a spark of creativity reignited through designing her daughter’s graduation dress led to a fashion tech company built around non-toxic materials, sustainable design, and a smarter way to use what we already own.

Then we go deeper into the why. We discuss microplastics from synthetic fibers, what happens when clothing ends up in landfills, and why transparency around chemicals and “forever” treatments matters when fabric sits on your skin all day. We also tackle affordability and health equity head-on: sustainable clothing costs more to produce, and expecting people to “just buy better” ignores budgets and reality.

The Quiet Gift: A Journey of Self Worth and Resilience is now available for download as an audible.  Check it out!

Transcript

Reignite Resilience Opening

SPEAKER_00 0:06

All of us reach a point in time where we are depleted and need to somehow find a way to reignite the fire within. But how do we spark that flame? Welcome to Reignite Resilience, where we will venture into the heart of the human spirit. We'll discuss the art of reigniting our passion and strategies to stoke our enthusiasm. And now here are your hosts, Natalie Davis and Pamela Katz.

SPEAKER_03 0:41

Welcome back to another episode of Reignite Resilience. I am your co-host, Natalie Davis, and I'm so excited to be back with all of you today. And joining me, of course, is your co-host, Pam Cass. Hello, Pam. How are you today?

SPEAKER_02 0:54

I am fantastic. And I actually had the honor of getting to be interviewed by your daughter this morning for her senior, her college senior project or whatever she's doing. And it was just so fun because when she got on the screen and I see this beautiful woman that she's turned into, I still remember her like embraces when we were in Spain and we had so much fun laughing and we just had such a great trip. And I was like, I think we need to do another trip for trip. Yes, we do. So it was it was just fun to see how what she's grown up into. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 1:32

Yes, uh, it's like project after project. She's in the home stretch of her senior year, and she just wrapped up her capstone project. And then she said, Well, I've got another project that I have to do, and where she's interviewing fabulous business leaders. And so I gave her a couple of names. And then I talked to her today, and she's like, Oh no, I my professor just gave me two more projects to do before the end of the year. And I said, just hang in there. This is the only thing that separates you from graduation. You just keep going.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

One foot in front of the other.

SPEAKER_03 2:04

Exactly. But when I started like reaching out to folks and I sent the message to you, and I was like, How did I get back in the spot where I'm her assistant? Like, what's happening here? I'm not setting up her meetings.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

This is what we do for our children. Forever.

Introducing Lacey And Rubia

SPEAKER_03 2:20

Exactly. I know that's why I was like, I'm done. I'm not doing this anymore. I'm not your assistant. I can't help you. You do your own work. You're doing it. Yeah, I'm excited to see how that all turns out. She's got a couple of projects that are in the works, but it's right in her wheelhouse and she's loving it. So thank you for volunteering and saying yes. Or I guess being volunteered and saying yes. I was volunteer. I would never have said no exactly. Oh my gosh. Well, we have a fabulous guest that's joining us today, and I am super excited to dive in. Pam, why don't you let our listeners know who's joining us today?

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Absolutely. So today we have Lacey Kazoo McLean. She is the founder and CEO of Rubia. Did I say that right? You did. Thank you. A Calgary-based fashion tech company redefining professional style through non-toxic materials, AI-powered wardrobe tools, and sustainable design. With 16 years of experience in IT project management, Lacey blends technical precision with conscious innovation to solve hidden problems in women's professional clothing, particularly toxicity, microplastics, and decision fatigue, my favorite topic. So thank you so much for joining us. And want to kind of hand it over to you and what got you into the business that you're into today, because it's very unique, but I think an incredible venture.

The Creative Roots Behind The Brand

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Thank you. It's certainly been an adventure. They say if you really knew what you were going to go through at the during the whole journey, not really sure if you'd start.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Yeah, exactly.

Learning About Toxins And Microplastics

New York Moment That Sealed It

SPEAKER_01 4:03

That would, I guess, summarize it. But it started years ago. I was a very creative child and teenager. I used to spend a lot of time scribbling and sketching and drawing designs and designing clothing and then characters to go with the clothing. And I used to just you'd look at my pages in school and there'd be flowers and characters drawn all around, probably not as focused as I should have been. But it was just the beginning of kind of this creativity. And then I later I went on to university, did business school, checked all the boxes, did all the right things, and went on to start a career in project management in IT. I've been doing that now for 16 years. And over those years, I learned a lot about technology and about fashion. And there was an idea always kind of percolating in the back of my mind, which I'm not sure if you know this movie. Most people do, but you never know. Clueless with Alicia Silverstone. So in the movie, she has her virtual closet. And back in the 90s, when this concept came out, I remember myself being like, this is incredible. Like we need these digital closets. Like, look at her. She can make her outfit combinations beforehand. And it stayed with me, but you know how it stayed with me is I think a lot of us have a tendency to do this. Oh, someone else will go create that. Somebody else is going to invent that. And there is other solutions out there. There's similar things. There's people that have attempted to do it. But I felt like every attempt has just not quite checked all of the boxes for me, where I was still a little bit frustrated after checking out these virtual wardrobe apps and felt like it's not quite what I thought it was going to be. And it kind of going on with life. This idea is kind of formulating. It comes to you every so often, right? And then my daughter is actually in her grade 12 year, her senior year in high school. And she wanted, we started working together to design her graduation dress. And we started this actually back when she was in grade 11. And so I took a fashion design certificate or course online in order to be like, okay, we're going to do this. Me and her are like, we're going to design this dress. And it just lit that flame, that flame from back when I was a teenager in school. And, you know, that creativity, I've always had a, I also do write books as well. And so it's, I've known that I'm creative. It's just I haven't had time to like really, really get into, into this old passion that I had. And it was just like honestly, just like lit on fire. And the passion was just back in in full force. And now though, what comparative to my teenagers, I had all this technology experience. And I was also really starting to learn about sustainability and starting to want to make more sustainable choices, kind of like learning about microplastics, getting into the environment, all of our synthetic clothes that we wear, how they can impact our skin. There's chemicals in them that can get absorbed into our skin. So I started just kind of learning more about that. My husband is a city firefighter, and he gets exposed to being a first responder to and being in the fighting business to a lot of smoke, a lot of toxins, their gear gets a lot on it. And uh workplace cancers are a problem across the board for firefighters. It's a known thing because of the exposures that that they have in their career. He got really into look, when I'm not at work, I want to make healthy conscious choices because my life might be impacted just because of what I do day in and day out. And when I am home, maybe I can give myself a little bit of a chance here to make good, healthy choices. And so he started looking in into organic clothing and not having plastics as much with what that we're drinking out of and all of those sorts of things. And I was like, oh, I'm busy. Busy, busy mama. I'm like, I don't, I don't want to worry about all these things, right? I just want to live. But over time, I started to look look things up online and I started to be like, oh, he's right. And just kind of starting to get a little bit bothered by it all. And so then I was like, well, I want to buy or organic cotton blazers. I want to see what's out there for bamboo. I want to see what other options are out there. If I'm gonna spend a bit of dollars on a nice piece of clothing, well, then why can't it be sustainable? And what I ended up finding was it was so hard. And this was all happening at the same time. So while I'm doing this adventure with my daughter and I'm taking this certificate, I'm working in technology, and I'm I'm struggling as a female professional to find clothes I actually like that are sustainable, that are good for the environment. And when I'm done with them, if they do end up in a landfill, they're gonna break down, return to earth, and not just into small little plastics that end up in the water and back into us consumed. And again, we're back to the to the sick uh long-term sicknesses that could come up from that and all of that. And I had a moment, I was planning a trip to New York with my kids. It was because my daughter always wanted to see Wicked on Broadway. This was her like birthday present, and and I was like, okay, we're gonna go, we're gonna go to New York. I'm gonna take you the two oldest, and my son included, he's he's 15, and we're gonna go to Broadway and we're gonna go to Wicked and all this. Well, here we are. I'm taking this fashion course. There's a fabric fair in New York, in Manhattan, at the time, and I bought tickets. My kids were not that thrilled. Just miles and miles of fabric. You're gonna love it. There's a lot of things for us to do in New York, mom. Going to a fabric fair was not on our list of let's go, let's go do this. But we went. And while I was there, then again, back to the sustainability, which you know, my husband and I are going through this whole whole journey. And they're talking about how sustainability is the future, how fabrics are are becoming more healthy for us, how this almost all the fabric makers need to be kind of up on all of this because this is what the consumer is growing to educate themselves and want, and and they're expecting to have healthier choices out there for them. And so it all just kind of came to a head. And then I was like, well, I'm gonna meld all my experiences together. My technology, my inspiration to create a dress, this fabric expo, like my husband's journey to making healthy choices and me going on that journey with him. And I'm gonna start a brand. And it it was a very weird moment because it was like, there's a lot there. But at the same time, it was a moment of clarity in the greatest way. Where you know, when you know you're supposed to do something, and deep down in your soul, in your gut, something comes to you, and you either is telling you, look, this is a terrible idea, don't do this, and whatever you believe, you know, it's guiding you not to do that. It was such a moment of guy just certainty that fell right deep into my into my stomach of this is what you need to do. And then I had the fearful moment that followed, which is God, source, universe, whatever it is that you believe in. I don't have time. I've got three kids, I've got a professional career. Would I even be good at it? Am I the right person? Isn't there lots of other wonderful people in the world who would be better? Like we go through all these like kind of like moments of doubt. And then the feeling in my stomach was still there. And I was just like, oh, it won't go away. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 11:49

This one is yours, it's not anyone else's. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

And then I was just like, okay, okay, all right. When I get to my deathbed, which hopefully isn't anytime soon, but you never know. When I get there, am I going to regret not trying?

SPEAKER_04 12:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

And I had that moment. And and here I am, like kind of going back and forth with it. And I just realized that I would, and I already knew it, even before we were in New York, like the idea was already percolating. I had kind of started formulating it, the company was coming together, like, but I hadn't completely talked myself into it. Even though I was taking those, those little actions to make it all come together, I would say that New York was what cemented it. Even though it was coming together in there and I was getting there, I wasn't totally committed until after that. And then yeah, it was like just this, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. And whatever it takes, however crazy it sounds, I'm sure my family's gonna think I'm crazy. You you got a great career, you got great kids, you got other things to worry about. Why you want to go start this company? I mean, it's the life of us, but I just like I gotta, I gotta do it. And and it was just the beginning of of many, many months of of decisions and vendor selections and designing the app and designing the clothes and finding the clothing partners to manufacture everything, marketing it, picking out branding, building a Shopify site, building an app, hiring a developer, testing, which is where we're at right now, and all of those things. And it was just like it took on this life of its own. And it it almost like Carrie Underwood has has this on Jesus took the wheel. And that's what it felt like. Again, whatever you believe, but like that's what it felt like is some he had the wheel and was steering things. And and yes, I'm trying to listen and and you know, make all this happen, but it really felt like very destined for sure.

SPEAKER_02 13:58

Well, I love it. So the going to New York, going to the fabric show, seeing that there were there was this trend for the healthier fabrics was kind of okay, so this is something that's can be a reality. Because at first there was like very little that you could find that was sustainable clothing.

The Market Gap For Professional Basics

SPEAKER_01 14:16

Yes, exactly. Well, and I'm actually wearing a rubaia blazer right now. So this is a hundred percent uh organic cotton blazer, and this is a hundred percent bamboo shirt, also rubaya. So I was already looking and already frustrated at that point because I couldn't find clothes that I liked in the sustainable space. Something that was great, like looked really nice on and looked structured and tailored, and that you could wear to a special event and or a big meeting and not somebody be like, oh, that's organic, isn't it? You know, oh that's kind of like doesn't look ultra professional, or it's kind of like professional casual, is the way that I would put it. And so that was where I was just like, there really is a bit missing in the market where the the professional woman or the woman that loves a good blazer or a beautiful shirt, dress shirt, isn't really finding or having a ton of options out there. And so they naturally go back to the synthetic fibers, to the fast fashion, to whatever it might be, because there's more options out there. And there's actually stuff they like. And so I was like, well, I want to create a brand. Well, maybe we're not the trendiest brand, but I really want to create a brand that women can build, especially professional women, can build a capsule wardrobe off of with those critical pieces that we all need to look nice at any given event or day, which is a great pair of sustainable dress pants that look awesome. You need a like a straight leg, you need a wide leg, like whatever it is, but it's gonna look really good. We need a great blazer that we that we can pair in maybe a couple different colors, a nice button-up essential dress shirt, a few, a few blouses. And I was just like, okay, like this doesn't seem like too much I'm asking for, but go find a hundred percent organic blazer that you like online, and you're gonna be like, oh my gosh, where is this? Exactly, yeah. Exactly. Yeah. And so it's like, I guess I'm going back to my synthetic blazer. That's yeah, yeah. If I the biggest problem with synthetics that I didn't learn to now through through this whole journey and even slightly before, was that polyasters take about 200 years to break down, if not more, in in the environment when they end up in landfills. And a great majority of our clothing end up in landfills. And they're either shipped off, textile waste is either shipped off to other uh developing countries, which is super rude if you think about it, right? And then it's either incinerated there or like so their burnoff is going into the air over over in other countries, or it's it's in our landfills just building up, building up. And the biggest problem with anything that's kind of a synthetic plastic type situation is when it breaks down, it kind of breaks down into it, it's not like what happens with um anything that's or organic. It's gonna break down and actually turn into dirt eventually, return back and enter the the life cycle of all things wonderful in this world. But what happens is it turns into a plasticky mush. It turns into mush, right? Because what's gonna happen, you know, we have a plot something plastic, it's gonna, it's not gonna break down and go feed a tree. It's gonna break down into mush, and that mush is gonna break down into uh little tiny pieces of plastic, a synthetic material that really never totally breaks down and returns to the earth. That little pieces of mush and end up going through the soil, enter the waterways, and then we consume it into back through our body. It ends up into seafood, it ends up in the oceans, it ends up in wherever it is that it's gonna end up. And now they're starting to do more and more studies about the impact, the long-term impact, because our clothes are just very small, or it's actually a big, big piece of the waste problem and microplastic problem we have in the world. So we don't see it because it's it's happening on such a small level. But if you're wearing a synthetic piece of clothing and you rub it against something, or it gets older, or you wash it a few times, there's actually little pieces of fibers that are coming off of it all the time. You're it you're actually inhaling those. And those are building up in your brain, in your body, all over. They find microplastics inside of us everywhere, right? And we don't think about it because we don't see it, right? Like we're not thinking about it because we're busy, but I'm not worrying about the fact I'm breathing in plastic off my clothes. But those little fibers are actually getting into your system and over time cut wreaking havoc. And they're only the studies are there's still so much more for us to do it. Just getting started. Yeah. We're just getting getting started. So that's that's we just talked about two ways that it kind of comes back and it ends up inside of you. And so yeah, I I mean, once you really start digging into it and you start thinking about the health impacts, it's kind of like, oh, we gotta, we gotta solve this problem. We we gotta give women options so they don't have to, in order for them to look good, feel good, they don't have to always revert back to the synthetic items. They can actually have and build some base items in their wardrobe that are uh more sustainable and biodegradable and friendlier for them from a health perspective and the environment. And so I was I'm on a mission now. I'm on a mission. I I want to give, I want to give women what they're looking for because I was looking for it and couldn't find it.

Affordability Health Equity And Transparency

SPEAKER_02 19:51

Yeah. Tell me about a little bit about affordability, because I know that there's always this concern that, well, I can't get healthy food because it's so much more expensive than you know, the coupon for the buy one, get one free potato chips. Tell us a little bit about the affordability in sustainable clothing.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

So sustain I would say equating it sustainable clothing to organic food in the grocery store is is a perfect way to describe it. So when you go to the grocery store, and I this is so silly, and and it talks just about health equity. So the fact that why does healthy things cost more? And why does that mean only people who can afford to be healthy get to be healthy? Why is there not more focus on health equality? Health equality is is everything. We should not be telling people through pricing that they can't afford to make healthy choices. Now, through through government grants, programs, whatever it is, we know we can solve this problem. They we've seen them attempt to solve it in other industries. They could there's a lot they could do to help equal out the situation. But now that I'm in the business and I've had to actually produce sustainable clothing, the fabric that we procure with all the certifications, so saying it's got certified, it's ethical, uh, ethical production, right? That indeed is organic, those fabrics cost a lot more money to produce. Like we're paying an arm and a leg just as sustainable clothing manufacturers. And even when we outsource and we build it, make our clothing overseas, we are still paying an arm and a leg. Even over there, you're gonna be paying to make sustainable clothes. And I mean, it's not even double. I think it's more than double what you're gonna pay, what they're paying for for clothing that are could be seeped in toxins, right? That are not are are gonna contribute to the textile waste problem that we're having on earth, that like are isn't great for people. Like, why is clothing that is not Good for you, but cheaper. And why are we making it so expensive and so hard for the companies that are coming along, the clothing brands that are coming along and saying, look, we wanna we wanna be healthy, we want to bring sustainable options out there, but we're gonna be paying way more to produce our clothes. And therefore, we're we have to consider that in our pricing.

SPEAKER_04 22:21

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

So we can't go, you gotta be able to support your operations. So you can't price too too crazy or you're trying to run a business, right? Now the government could help, but there's a lot of things that they could do to help to equalize that. But they don't. And why would they? And it doesn't benefit. So the other thing too is a lot of the fast fashion brands and and fast fashion in general, they have no motivation. People are buying their clothes at the no, they they all people are more motivated by pricing. Fair enough. The world does have everybody's on a budget. And so they're like, well, nobody's worrying. We're not being asked to display on the tag what chemicals are in this clothes, how long it's going to take to break down if you ever, if it ever ends up in a landfill. Yeah. We're not telling people and people aren't asking. So why do we have to tell them? Why do we have to tell them that that there's chemicals that are forever chemicals that are co providing stain resistance and water resistance on their clothes, again, that are getting into the environment and potentially in into them and they're never going away. You know, we you know how people are starting to get in general, or folks are starting to get more concerned about drinking out of plastic water bottles.

SPEAKER_02 23:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 23:37

Well, it's the same thing, except the water bottle is sitting on your desk, your clothes are sitting on you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:42

Yeah. Yeah, touching your skin.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

Yeah. So it's like, okay, well, so you're not drinking out of your plastic water bottle, but you're you're wearing the clothes every day, day in and day out, all year long. And now they're starting to say, oh, well, you have to say if there's forever chemicals in that cup you're giving your child. But why aren't we required to say that there's there's certain things in the clothing we're putting in our children?

SPEAKER_02 24:06

Well, I think until the education is out there to let people know, because I'm I will clearly admit that I had no idea about the toxic stuff and the plastics coming off and me breathing it. So until more people know about it, people are not gonna, you know, stand up and say, hey, we want that to be on our labels, because I don't want this on my kids. You know, I don't want my baby to be in clothes that they're gonna be ingesting plastic from just breathing. And so I think it's the education piece of it. So what you're doing, the podcast and getting out there, what your husband's doing, you know, getting the awareness, I think it's one one person at a time. That was what your mission was.

Using A Virtual Closet To Reduce Waste

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Yeah, exactly. And we're trying to price okay, but I mean, it is a little bit more expensive. But I think the other thing is we're fighting back with trying to reduce textile waste in in landfills by introducing technology. And that's really what the Rubia brand is about melding sustainability with technology and realizing that together they actually help each other out. So our virtual wardrobe app is going to help anybody, anyone, to better utilize the clothes that they have in their closet, right? So, how often do we have clothes that we don't wear that find the dusty recesses of the closet, right? And how can we bring those clothes back to life? How can we find them again? How can we create outfit combinations? How can we, what can we do? So while we were designing the virtual closet app, we were just like, this is the question we have to answer. Like, how do we help people shop their closets? Yes, we're selling a clothing brand, but to truly achieve our goal, which is reduce textile waste, we need to reduce the amount of clothes that end up in the landfills. And yes, there's clothes in our closets that we're not wearing. And I have synthetic clothes. I we're all on a budget, right? It would cost a lot of money to replace all of your clothes with sustainable clothes. But how can we meld those two worlds together where it's not one or the other? And this is, I remember feeling like this when I started on this journey. I was like, okay, well, up until this point, I'm in my 40s, like up until this point, I haven't really been worrying about this. This is new to me. I've been buying whatever clothes I want that fit the budget and that look cute. Like I've got all these clothes and now I'm trying to make choices, but I don't want to be guilted. I don't want to feel bad. Like, I'm gonna go buy my sustainable blazer. I'm gonna spend a few extra dollars for it, but I'm not gonna feel bad if I wear my my sustainable blazer with my synthetic shirt. Okay, guys, it's happening. No judgment. Everyone, just do your part. That's right. That's exactly what we need to do, though. We need to stop guilting women and guilting people like anyone, anyone, and I say this because our apps are usable for anyone across across the board. The brand itself is for women, but the app is usable for whoever might want to use it. And and let's start supporting each other. And just when we look at a volume perspective, if we start making even 10% to 25% of our purchases sustainable, think about that when you put even millions of people together, making even a small incremental change where it's like, look, I only buy organic bamboo pants now. Like, that's it. And even a few women make that choice. That's an incredible reduction in textile waste. The other thing too is we typically, I was re I was looking up all these stats, right, for podcasts. And we typically wear our clothes. This is so bad. I was on a podcast with a man like who's kind of a scientist, and he was like, I wear my clothes a lot more than you're saying, you're about to say here. I can feel it. I'm like, yes. I said the statistic, and then his face was just like, because women wear their clothes seven to ten times uh before they find those dusty recesses on average. The fast fashion business is seven to ten times. And then we have our trusty few items that like continually always use them. But it's like, I think in the podcast business, you probably get this too. It's like, oh, I wore that shirt last podcast. Yes, yes. It's like I feel I feel like I wore it too many times now.

SPEAKER_03 28:33

No, Lacey, you're so right. Like with how many photos are captured, right? Like moments that you're recording a video podcast, the pe the pictures that you have that capture you when you're doing things, it's like, well, I wore that the last time. If I wear that again, what are people gonna think? Right. And that that all feeds into the same problem that we're talking about. Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:53

Yeah. That article uh or piece is has met its time. I might take it back out in two or three years. We'll see. Yeah, likely not.

SPEAKER_00 29:04

Thank you for joining us today on the Reignite Resilience podcast. We hope you had some aha moments and learned a few new real life ideas to fuel the flames of passion. Please subscribe on your favorite streaming platform, like or download your favorite episodes, and of course, share with your friends and family. We look forward to seeing you again next time on Reignite Resilience.