How A Digital Wardrobe Revives Forgotten Clothes + Resiliency with Lacy Cadieux-McLean (Part 2)

Your closet is full, yet you still feel like you have “nothing to wear.” That isn’t a style problem, it’s a memory and decision problem, and it drains energy before your day even starts. We sit down with Lacey to unpack a smarter approach: a digital wardrobe that helps you catalogue what you own, generate fresh outfit combinations with AI, and finally stop rebuying the same basics because you forgot they were already hanging at home. 

We get into the surprisingly human side of fashion technology, including shareable closets that let friends and family plan looks together for trips, conferences, and big nights out. Think less frantic texting and more confident coordination, down to color choices and the right “shade of blue.” We also talk outfit calendaring as a practical outfit planner that can cut overpacking and make travel easier by building intentional looks ahead of time. Along the way, we name the real culprit many of us ignore: decision fatigue, the steady drip of micro choices that steals time and focus every single morning. 

Then we go deeper on virtual try on avatars and why seeing clothing on an avatar can help you evaluate fit and color with a little more distance from mirror anxiety. Lacey also shares the sustainability angle: digital clothing that integrates into your virtual closet so you can test versatility before buying a physical piece, helping reduce textile waste while keeping fashion more affordable. We close with hard earned startup truth about imperfect projects, problem solving, and the grit it takes to ship. 

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

Transcript

Rekindling Energy And Curiosity

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 Cass.

Turning Old Clothes Into New Outfits

Sharing Closets For Better Plans

SPEAKER_03 0:41

That article or piece has met its time. I might take it back out in two or three years. We'll see. Likely not. Who has those pieces that you're holding on for 20 years and you're just like, I know I have it and I'm not ready to let go? Or I've completely forgotten I have it and I need it brought back to life. This app is going to help you with that because whatever clothes you end up rendering in it, we say rendering because you gotta take a picture and then it renders in, whichever ones you put in there, and over time you can kind of build up your database of clothing. The AI is actually going to go through and come up with new and fresh outfit combinations for you. I use the example of a of say a certain color shirt, but we have like five or six similar shirts that are that color, right? Like we know we bought that shirt five years ago somewhere, you know, somewhere something cool. But now we're standing in the store and this, very similar shirt is right there. And it's just like I could forget I own that shirt. Yes. Yep. It's such a journey that we all go on all the time. This is hopefully gonna help. Give those clothes some new life, remind you you own them, come up with some new and fresh outfit combinations for that similar shirt that you've had forever, and you can kind of breathe some new life into it. The other really cool, cool thing is collaboration. So with the Rubia app, we built it so that it is shareable with family friends. So when when you have your best friend, so Pamela, if you you're trying to go on a trip, which we mentioned at the beginning of the call, like, oh, let's do a trip. You're trying to go on a trip and you want to have a special night out on your trip, and you and Natalie want to know what each other is wearing that night, you can share your closet with Natalie.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Cool.

SPEAKER_03 2:52

Yes, Natalie will be able to go into your closet and you can either show her on a lifelike avatar of you that looks just like you, what you're thinking of wearing for dinner that day. And if Natalie is like, oh my gosh, Pamela, don't just don't wear that color. Shaking. I want to choose a different blazer. I want to choose a scar. I don't know what we're gonna do, but we're gonna do something slightly different. You're gonna say it really nice though, right now. Like whatever it is. And I'm guilty of this. We all want to have these like amazing like bonding experiences with our friends and family, right? All of a sudden, this app opens this whole like bonding experience up. Where now Pamela can also go into Natalie's closet and also be like, Natalie, Natalie, let us talk. We're not going like all we're not wearing all the same color. Like we gotta have some diversity, or maybe you want to. Maybe it's like trying like everybody's dressing in blue that day. It's what's happening.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

It's so good, right? Because you do have those moments where everyone is dressing in blue and then you put on the wrong shade of blue, right? It's the wrong hue, and then it throws everything off. Like, I love this piece.

SPEAKER_02 4:07

Well, I just think about how many times I'm going somewhere and I'm like, what are you wearing? What are you wearing? Exactly. Yeah. Like, I don't know what to wear. Like I just ask that question all the time. Natalie and I are going to a conference in a couple of weeks and we're staying together, and I'm gonna be like, What are you wearing every day?

Outfit Calendars And Packing Less

SPEAKER_03 4:24

Yes, we match or don't match or whatever. You're gonna be able to have a calendar entry so you can actually pre-plan your events, like your count your outfits for the week. So, even better, Pamela and Natalie can have a little back and forth of being like, on Monday, this is the outfit, that's beach day. Tuesday is like we're we're gonna go see something exciting. It's ladies' night on the town, and so that's just what we're doing this day. And so you can kind of plan it out, and then it also kind of helps with overpacking, hopefully. I'm very bad overpacker, really bad overpacker. And so if anything, my my husband will just be like, Why do you have to bring all your clothes? Like, like you don't need it's it's it's five days, and you're bringing clothes for one month, plus some other things that might happen because you just never know. We don't know. You're gonna go in the pool one time if you're lucky, but you're bringing four bathing suits. A hundred percent. A hundred percent.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

Of course, you can't wear the same bathing suit twice. It's terrible.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

There are there are many things that I struggle with. Overpacking, uh, thank goodness is one that I've worked through. I've I've worked through on that, but I you're correct, I will always carry more than enough bathing suits because you never know. You never know. That one I don't compromise on. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 5:47

No, she she doesn't. We went on a trip together to Spain and she showed up and she literally had a backpack for 10 days, and I had the big Rolly suitcase and the medium-sized Rolly suitcase, and she's looking at me like, well, we didn't want to check bags. I'm like, Well, I guess we are now I'm sorry. Guess how much how many of the clothes outfits I wore in the suitcases? Like this many.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

I think you yeah, I think you only wore 10% of the things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

Yeah, I totally overpacked. But I love that idea. Are you able to kind of go in and say, I'm gonna be in Paris for a week in September, and here's what the weather is, and here are the things I want to do. Will it kind of build a wardrobe for you?

SPEAKER_03 6:29

You know, it reads it based off where you are. So that's that's the thing. Actually, it's a good question for my development team. I'm gonna actually ask now. But I know that it reads based off of where you are. What we're gonna be releasing is version one, right? And in technology, just like with mobile phones and apps that are coming out, they're always doing releases and enhancements to improve it. So that's one of those things that even if it's not there, we're definitely gonna be adding that to the list. Because I think that having the capability to get it to come up with outfit combinations based off the weather of where you're going versus where you are will be really key, especially for that packing.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

And what you want to do, like what your activities are gonna be, would be like that, would be a dream come true for me. That'd be like having a personal packer.

SPEAKER_03 7:18

Yes, exactly. It's gonna evolve and it's it's really gonna, I think it's gonna become a staple. That's our dream. The other thing too is um, you know, we've we've got teenage teenagers, it sounds like, and and young adults, and I think that uh eventually they're gonna start dating. Right. And how much is it gonna be like a bonding experience, say with your daughter, Natalie, of just being like, oh, like you have this special event or date or whatever it might be that's coming up. Oh, mom, I really want you to help me. Maybe she's away at college or university or whatever it is. I don't know what to wear. Can you help me? Like, and you all of a sudden you have these kind of emotional bonding experiences with them. And it gives you a chance to share with them when it's already hard because they're far away and you want to be there with them, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:09

Well, and I think it it also kind of closes that loop when you look at like the clueless piece that that kind of sparked some of this, right? It's the connection that teenage girls will have with their friend groups because what you describe, Lacey, it's so interesting when you talk about the calendaring of the outfits. It actually gave me a flashback. One of my very close friends and I, when we were in middle school and high school timeframe, we would actually draw out a calendar on a blank piece of paper. We would put the boxes out and write out what we were going to write because again, vanity is real. Even during that time, I was like, oh, I can't repeat the same outfits every week, right? And so it was alternating when the outfit was worn and what pieces were paired with one another. But it also helps, I think the other big piece is the decision fatigue, right? Like that's the piece that I think a lot of us don't even realize the amount of decisions that we're making that's costing us time and energy. And this was a reflection that I had. Like when the kids are little, you're getting yourself and the children dressed and everyone out of the house. Like before you even step into the main part of the home to make a meal, you've already made like multiple decisions of what are you gonna wear? What are we gonna do with your hair? What, you know, where do we have to go today? And then it's like, okay, now let's get the day started. And so no wonder mothers like myself that might have been type B moms, like walk out of the house frazzled. It's like, I've already made 472 decisions today, and I'm just walking out the door. I haven't gone to work yet. I haven't even gone to work yet.

SPEAKER_03 9:42

Make 30, 35,000 decisions a day. Uh isn't that isn't that crazy? Just these little micro decisions all day long, every day. Every day. And and anything to make that better, I think people welcome it. Uh, and they'll embrace technology or whatever it is that that they need to do. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 10:00

Absolutely. And to and to like me, it's like I get into this loop of okay, well, I'm gonna wear this black outfit today and this black outfit tomorrow, and then I'll do black on Thursday and black on Friday. And it's just a different, yes.

Avatars And Getting Out Of Your Head

SPEAKER_01 10:14

And so it's like it would be nice to have a little color in my my life. But it's a different outfit. You still have to put it together, right? Like you, it's it's with the shoes and the yeah, it's all of it, right?

SPEAKER_03 10:25

It's yeah, there's something about seeing the clothes on yourself on an avatar. Absolutely you can disconnect from seeing yourself in a mirror looking at yourself. I don't know why, what that is. I'm sure there's studies on it, but when you look at yourself in the mirror, you don't always see your the reality of what you're looking at. And I think it's just over in society, probably, and just the way that women are to themselves. They just have a really hard time seeing the reality of the situation at looking at back at them. And so it's kind of nice to see clothes on on your avatar because you can kind of disconnect from from some of the things uh that might be going on in your head in the mirror. And you can be like, oh, does that color combination actually look nice on me? If I put those pants and that shirt on me, does it complement what I need to have complimenting going on here? And you can kind of have a little bit of a disconnect. We do say though that I think eventually someday we're gonna be working with uh I hope people love their avatars because I really do hope that this doesn't turn into a I don't like my avatar situation. Because we all know as women, we're gonna find a way to be like, I don't like my avatar today. But I'm really hoping that that won't be the case. It's tough out there.

Launch Timeline And What Ships First

SPEAKER_02 11:43

It is absolutely tough out there, but oh my gosh, what you're creating is when so when is the launch? Like the first one.

Digital Clothing To Cut Textile Waste

SPEAKER_03 11:51

Well, it's in May. It is just around the corner. Yeah, it depends. So when this is posted, if if it's already out, it's either coming out or already out. But yeah, it's it's coming out in May, and they're currently just in the final rounds of of testing everything. So it's like, oh, I'm stopping myself from showing you on my phone right now. I have this whole conversation. It's probably not quite at the like big reveal stage. It's coming, and there's gonna be a lot of things that my marketing team are gonna be announcing and releasing over the next little while. And then, of course, once it does launch, the clothes are ready. Everything's done with the clothes. So we're just awaiting the app uh to be all done, and then we're gonna do our grand launch. And we're also really starting to get hopefully interest in the idea of the digital version of clothing, because that's also feeds into the whole reducing textile waste and helping us with our affordability of clothing as well. Because sustainable clothes cost a little bit more, sometimes we need to spend some extra time thinking about if we want to spend a certain amount on a blazer. You're gonna be able, for a much more affordable price, you're gonna be able to purchase a digital version of each of the items of Rubia's clothes. So, and when you purchase, say it'll be like$7 or something like that. It's something super bad, nothing crazy. But when you make that digital version purchase, it automatically integrates with your app. So that digital version of the blazer ends up in your closet as a and it has an indicator that it's digital and you don't own the physical copy, but you can try it on and get outfit combinations with it. And so you can see how it fits into your overall wardrobe, if it works with the pants you're thinking of wearing it for, if it looks good with a couple of your shirts, and then when you're ready, you can go and execute on the physical sale.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

Okay. So could you just say, all right, virtual closet, here's this blazer. How many outfits can you create using this blazer in it so that I can then wrap my head around, okay, that's like 15 outfits that I now have with that one blazer, which is worth would be worth money.

SPEAKER_03 14:05

Yeah, well, you do is you use the AI, you can use the AI generator to give you outfit combinations and then you can favorite them. Okay, or you can come up with your own outfit combinations and then see if you like it. And so you or you can invite a family and friend, and they can come up. They can you could give them access to your closet and then they can go in there. Oh, the really cool thing too. Oh, my the design of this app was so fun. Like you don't even design it. We actually designed it so it's it's very similar to the launch pages on Disney Plus or Netflix. So, you know, when you when you have your Netflix account and you have you can see the different the accounts that are shared with you that you have access to, you're actually gonna have a launch page that shows you all the closets that have been shared with you. So you'll see Pamela's like on your launch page, you'll see Pamela's profile picture. And then if Natalie shared her closet, you'll see Natalie's and you can actually choose which closet.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

That is cool.

SPEAKER_03 15:09

I love that.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

All right. Then I say, Natalie, can I borrow that? Exactly. I see that you're not wearing it.

Building The App And Creative Work

SPEAKER_01 15:16

I'm gonna, I'd like to borrow it. We ever worn it. Lice, you have shared like how excited you have gotten about the app itself. Going back to this brainchild of I'm creating a brand to today, you've learned a lot. There's the ups and downs. Uh, you know, business ownership is is wonderful and daunting all at the same time. What has been the most surprising and enjoyable thing for you?

SPEAKER_03 15:42

I think that was the design for sure. Designing the clothes was super fun. Oh, yeah. Like that's that's like right back to high school again and drawing and scribbling. Like it there, I actually really wasn't that different. That was really, really fun. And then being kind of coming up with the concept of like, look, I don't just want to do like traditional, just create a clothing brand. I want to bring my technology experience in and then building an app and then building the integration and putting myself in the shoes of the consumer and just being like, what do we actually need? What's missing in these tools that I've tried to use and not liked? And that was really, really fun. I'm sure we stressed the developers out. I'm convinced the developers had to be circumstant because the things we were asking for, they had nothing to like go compare to. Nobody else could quite done it this way. And so they were just like, okay, you want what?

unknown 16:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:38

Then the technical minds all get together, right? They're, you know, we've got the creative idea. I know.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

I was just gonna say, Lacey, when you're like all the creatives have come up with this, and then your developers are like, we speak in code. Like, what do you want? Yeah, how are we going to make what you're dreaming here?

SPEAKER_03 16:57

Uh that's exactly how the conversation went. Some ideas, guys. Yeah, yeah. And ladies, like it was it's a combination. They did though, they were such troopers. I it was just like this massive meeting of the minds that happened where they were just like, okay, cool idea. Afraid, afraid. Well, you know what we could do? And then it started this whole conversation. And even where we had to make some level of compromise, which you always do, it felt like we were still winning.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

Yes, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. It's yeah, I love that piece. And and you, I'm assuming, don't have to feel like you had to stifle that creative piece. It kind of took a backseat for a little bit in your life because everyone is now staying in their lane, right? Developers are gonna work on developing and you're gonna work on creating the vision, what it looks like, what it feels like, the impact that it has. And then everyone else executes.

SPEAKER_03 17:58

You know, I didn't realize how stifled my creativity has been until I started this and started getting so passionate about all of this creating and ideas and uh thinking out of the box. After 16 years in project management, I've been in the logical space, in the very kind of stifling business professional space of executing, executing, making the plan happen, being very professional, being very like someone else came up with the idea. We're implementing this new SAS solution. It's it's very, very, very logical and and not a lot of uh super flexible creativity. So do the Rubia project from its inception was like seeped in creativity and seeped in outside of the box and seeped in like let's just rebuild the whole way we do things and clothes, like let's just pioneer the whole thing. They say there's a certain level of delusion you have to have to truly, honestly be a really, really out-of-the-box thinking entrepreneur. And you have to like just go with it because nobody has ever done anything of worth who wasn't at least a little bit delusional. Right. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

Absolutely. Otherwise, you're just creating something that's already exists. And what's the point?

SPEAKER_03 19:17

Doing the same thing over and over and over again. Yeah, I definitely had a moment like where I was just like, oh my gosh, what are we taking on? Like, are we biting off way more than we can chew here? Like, and then we're like, I forget we're gonna make it happen. And and that's the conclusion.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

I love it, I love it. So Lacey's launching in May. And so by the time our listeners hear this episode, the app should be available. Will it be available in both Apple and Google Play Store?

SPEAKER_03 19:47

It will, yeah. So we're releasing in both Apple and Google, and so it should be there. Now we are likely going to launch first in Canada and the USA, stabilize and then and then just over time keep building and adding new countries to the mix. And maybe there's technology and testing reasons for that. We're gonna do a pretty big launch to begin with, launching in Canada and US. So we're gonna take minutes, make sure that's all good, and then we'll keep on adding. We're enabled to operate any countries where the Apple and Android stores, the Google stores serve. And so there's that list is long. It's like I don't even know how many. It's it's different depending on Apple to Google, but it's well over 150 countries, I think. And so eventually over time, the goal is that we're we're global and fully ruled out. The clothing themselves are gonna be available as as well. We'll start in Canada and the USA, and then that launch will continually expand out. We're actually already enabled to operate in we've we're set up to operate in the UK, Europe, and Australia as well. But again, we're gonna probably rip the band-aid slowly off and then and then keep going from there. But it's probably me, like you, you'll be able to be part of the initial launch for sure.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

That's awesome. I love the humility that you have with it. You're like, we're just gonna start with Canada and the US. You mean the majority of North America? Got it. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 21:09

It's a lot. Like, and there's a lot of crazy, crazy things that can go wrong when you're doing a technology project. But I keep thinking, I'm Canadian, right? So I'm in Calgary. And and I'm like, but um, our best supporters for this app have actually been in the States. Like, I mean the podcasters, the consultants that have been working on this thing, my PR people, like the it feels like both Canada and the US have had their their part of the chapter. And and so I I feel like we gotta do it together. We're friends anyway, right? Let's let's let's let's go on this journey together. Hopefully it's not too crazy. I love it to be crazy.

Imperfect Starts And Entrepreneur Grit

SPEAKER_01 21:49

I love it. Oh my gosh. I am so excited. If you have some advice for our listeners, because I mean, here you are, you have created a fabulous book. Brand and company based off of the Spark that came up as a side project that you were working on with your daughter, but that's okay. Neither here nor there. Do you have any words of wisdom advice for our listeners today that they could take with them if they're on the fence of starting something new, taking a leap, listening to that voice, letting Jesus take the wheel, whatever that may be.

SPEAKER_03 22:22

I think it's realizing that there's no company in the world, there's no project, and I've been doing projects again a long time. I've done a lot of different kinds of projects across a lot of different industries. There's no perfect project. And we have to accept that anybody who wants to do anything, just even stepping out the door, nothing is perfect. And so my advice is realizing and embracing imperfection and realizing that problems are gonna happen. It's how you handle them, it's the attitude you bring each day, and in realizing that no, you're not doing it wrong, you're not doing it badly, you're not failing because you're facing problems. You are experiencing what every single entrepreneur, company, business owner, and person is experiencing in any given day who's doing anything of worth, right? And you need to not be scared away and think, oh, I'm not I'm not meant to do this because it got hard today, because there was some fires we had to fight, because today was hard, just in general. That's normal. And the difference between people that get an idea and follow it through all the way to the end is the grit and the capability of pushing through those days and those events and those things to stay focused on your goal, which whatever it is that your end goal is.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

Oh my gosh. Lacey, thank you, thank you, thank you. I am excited to see the app and the launch of the collection as well. This is looking at that sustainability piece, especially for professional business women. I know that there was a huge disconnect. And you touched on this earlier. That was a journey that I started down uh middle of last year and figured that I could only get resort and beach attire if I wanted it to be sustainable, right? It was very casual and not professional in that sense. And so I am excited to see the launch. I am excited to be able to purchase and participate and do my part as it pertains to sustainability and not contributing to the waste from textile waste that's that's happening in the world. So thank you, thank you, thank you for what you're doing. Thank you for sharing your personal story with us, and we wish you the best of luck with the launch of the business.

SPEAKER_02 24:36

Yes, absolutely. And I'm excited to see what's in Natalie's closet.

SPEAKER_01 24:39

Oh, yeah. We can probably put it out for our listeners. No, we won't do that. We're not gonna do it. No. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 24:46

That's crazy talk. We're gonna draw a line right there.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

We're not doing it. We have to draw the line. Oh my goodness. Lacey, we will make sure that we drop the contact information for the company. And you all are already on Instagram, I saw, because I followed you. So we'll make sure that you put your social handles on there as well. And then if and when you are ready to come back and give us all of the updates about everything new after the launch, we would love to have you back.

SPEAKER_03 25:11

Yes. Oh, it would be really fun. I'm sure we're gonna have some good stories. We'll be like bringing back to like remember you were saying like the launch and the big launch, or like, oh, yeah. It will we'll have some good ones, I'm sure. Exactly.

Where To Follow And Final Goodbye

SPEAKER_01 25:24

I love it. Those will all just be fond memories by the time we reached beautiful. For our listeners, you all know the deal. If you want to learn more about what's happening in the world of Reignite Resilience, head on over to ReigniteResilience.com, follow us on Facebook and Instagram. If you still have not subscribed to our Think Letter, I don't know what you're waiting for. Make sure that you subscribe to our Think Letter. It's our weekly newsletter that goes out where we do a deeper dive about our episodes and our guests and what we've learned and tying in those action items that you can take to make sure that you are taking action and having movement in your life. So until next time, we will see y'all soon. Bye everyone.

SPEAKER_00 26:03

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.