From Cher to Chic: How The Acquired App is Bringing ‘Clueless’ Wardrobes to Life!
Have you ever wondered how the clothes you wear could shape not only your confidence but also your environmental impact? Meet the visionary mind behind ‘The Acquired,’ a game-changing fashion and retail tech startup, as she takes us on a journey of style, sustainability, and innovation.
From a young age, inspired by her parents’ powerful business attire and driven by her own experiences in the world of law, Lynn Mikolajczak discovered the transformative power of clothing. Her fascination with fashion led her to become a workwear blogger and, subsequently, a fashion agency entrepreneur. However, it was the convergence of a pandemic and a growing awareness of fashion industry pollution that propelled her to create ‘The Acquired.’
What was your idea behind your app ‘The Acquired’?
I grew up with parents who always dressed up when they left the house for business. Also as a child, I went with them to networking events and was standing between men in suit. I literally – looked up to them and said to myself “one day I want to be that powerful confident business woman in a suit. So I realized from a young age the impact an outfit could have on your confidence. Later, when I was in law (I come from a legal background) – I also experienced how it could have an impact how others perceived me and my productivity. To have a creative outlet, I started blogging and posting about it on Instagram. So I started my journey as a workwear blogger and came quickly in contact with women who recognized them in my story and brands created by women who experienced it and created a brand to empower those women in the workplace. I connected the women and brands. also and I was looking for a creative outlet, so I started blogging. From there, I started a fashion agency where I did PR and content creation for these brands. Only, then the pandemic happened, suddenly everyone was working from home and on top of that, the brands were too small to make a profitable business out of it…. Therefore, I decided to take matters into my own hands and start a marketplace for business wear for women. Only this business was way too ad focused and revolved only around sales and consumption. Which didn’t feel right, especially considering the pollution within the fashion industry. Through trendwatching training and design thinking, I came up with the concept of a digital closet. A match made in heaven. Making an impact on a personal level for the user and saving the planet in style.
What services does The Acquired offer?
The Acquired is a Fashion & Retail Tech startup that gets the most value out of closets by connecting the closets of our users with fashion retailers and service providers via a digital wardrobe app.
The Acquired is for users the ultimate digital wardrobe solution that helps them organize their wardrobe, and discover new outfit combinations by making it easy to plan their outfits and keeping track of their beloved clothing items. With our app, they experience the daily the joy of shopping from their closet and elevate their personal style while making a positive impact in the way they dress and shop.
With our digital platform tailored for fashion brands and retailers, we are able to track the clothing consumption behavior of its users to support conscious consumerism and production via personalized recommendations and promote sustainable & circular business models like repair, care, resell, and rental to elongate the lifespan of clothes.
How do you think The Acquired is helping shoppers become more sustainable?
On average, clothes are only worn seven times before being discarded and we also buy 60% more clothes than in the year 2000. 61 of what we buy new we have already in our wardrobe and 18,6 million tons of clothing being thrown away around the world every year.
Mistakenly, consumers think they can make little to no impact. Nothing could be further from the truth. By wearing your clothes 9 months longer, you can reduce your carbon footprint by 30%. Moreover, Consumers are overwhelmed by clothes in their disorganised wardrobes, which leads to impulse consumption and fashion waste.
We have 148 pieces of clothing on average in our wardrobes, of that, 80 we don’t wear and ½ women experience stress when choosing an outfit
With The Acquired App, we want to guide users to get the most value out of their existing closet, In addition, we can through our recommendation system with the items the user already has, extend the use of garments, suggest services to elongate the lifespan of the items and promote conscious shopping that fits the users’ personal style and wardrobe
Digitizing your wardrobe can be a daunting task. What is a good place for customers to start?
The problem is that people think they need to digitize their entire wardrobe. The truth is: they don’t have to! By identifying your core style and adding the 10 items you truly want, you can start building a sustainable wardrobe. We offer a free style quiz where we identify the core style of someone as we believe that your real authentic personal style is already within you and your closet, you just need to rediscover it.
By adding 10 items to your digital closet using your core style as a framework, the magic can start. With only 10 well-curated items you can already create 30 up to 48 outfits. We will guide users in adding their 10 items so the recommendation system can do its work and the users can start building a sustainable wardrobe that truly fits their personal authentic style.
More about our philosophy of the core style
In today’s world especially, it is so easy to be influenced into an impression of what you *should* be wearing – often without even realizing it! What you should be wearing to fit in, to be trendy, to look “pulled together”, or to “dress your age”.
First, it is important to realize that many of these messages are coming to you from individuals or organizations who are incentivized to have you constantly buying new things.
But, it also means that many of us lose touch with what we *actually* like! We are fooled into thinking that our taste in fashion changes all the time when our tastes in other areas of our life stay largely consistent or slowly evolve over decades of experience. For example: how much has your favorite color changed? Your favorite foods or flavors? Your favorite genre of books or movies?
Deep down, your true taste in style has likely stayed largely consistent as well – it’s just a matter of tuning out all the external messages and tuning into those innate instincts about what qualities naturally light you up.
That’s why we want to encourage and guide you in finding your core style, as that one will rarely change. Besides your core style, you also have sub-styles. Those can change slightly over time or be adjusted based on the occasion.
Once you have clarity about your core style, lots of other pieces start to fall into place… If everything in your wardrobe slowly starts to align with your core style, getting dressed and creating outfits would be much easier, more efficient and intuitive.
You’ll have more clarity on what items you should buy without regrets – and so you’ll be able to invest in better and more sustainable items with confidence,
You’ll finally have a closet full of clothes and always something to wear.
Your mornings would be more relaxed and you would navigate life with style and ease.
What are some of your favourite brands to suggest to those wanting to achieve a capsule wardrobe?
It all depends on what I call the stylish trinity: your core style (the framework of your style and closet, textual style (also called style words; how you would describe your style and which values you want to project with it), and visual style (how you want your style aesthetically is looking)
It’s via the app we can detect this and recommend the right brands and items to the right users.
What are the items that you think should be in everyone’s capsule wardrobe?
I think everybody should have in their closet a black blazer, good denim, black heels, a knee-length dress with a sleeve, comfortable flats, a pair of heels, a white shirt, tailored trousers and a classic coat like a trench. The details of the items can vary depending on your style but I think these are the evergreens everybody should have in their closet and are the foundation to build an outfit with.
The app has yet to launch! When can we expect to have access to it?
Currently, we are bèta testing the app and in September we want to do an official launch – right on time to build your work wardrobe and fall/winter wardrobe.
How does AI assist your software? And how does this translate in a practical sense?
The Acquired app learns customer behavior and preferences to then make recommendations via AI. Not just outfits based on what they own, but also conscious shopping recommendations that fit users’ preferences, styles, and current closets. In addition, we want to extend the lifespan of clothing based on how clothes are used. When clothes are worn a lot, recommendations for local repair and care services will be made via A.I. When clothing is not worn, rental or resell will be recommended, including the (residual) value of the item. For clothing that has reached the end of its useful life, recycling, upcycling or take-back programs can be recommended.
In addition, we are also exploring using A.I. for repair & care services. On the one hand, it tracks how frequently garments are worn, allowing for personalized repair and care tips and services. On the other hand, we want to lower the threshold to repair as much as possible. Because of fast fashion, consumers and often store employees are no longer aware of the repair possibilities for clothing. In addition, the threshold is raised even more because of the quotation request that is always required for repair services. By using AI to automatically list repair options, we want to lower this threshold as much as possible.
The basis of the app is to photograph clothing you already have in your wardrobe and upload it to the app. The app then works it’s magic and creates you outfits? Could you explain the process a bit more and how it actually works out which items go together!?
We are researching to solve this effort issue 😉 So I can only say to users to join us already in this journey as only when we have a community that starts with 10 items in their closet – like explained in 5. Then we are able to solve this problem via our brand partners.
Once The Acquired has launched. What direction do you want to take it in?
With The Acquired app, we aim to create a more sustainable and inclusive future for the fashion industry and its stakeholders by empowering women, supporting the sustainable fashion ecosystem, promoting knowledge sharing, and fostering collaboration by building a sustainable and circular ecosystem around the consumer’s closet.
What is next for The Acquired & you?!
Above all, build the dream. I feel that today I have all the puzzle pieces in my hands to turn this dream into a successful business. We have raised funding, there is a team and I myself am quitting my current job and going fully for entrepreneurship. It’s scary and uncertain, but exciting and so fulfilling at the same time. Startup life is a rollercoaster, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything else for anything in the world.