Today we’d like to introduce you to Lacie Thorne.
Hi Lacie, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I grew up here in Nashville and attended University School of Nashville before leaving for SMU in Texas, where I earned my business degree in Marketing. After college, I moved to New York City to study Fashion Design at Parsons School of Design, and spent the next ten years working in the NYC fashion industry. Early in my career, I led design development and product launches for celebrity brands at major national retailers- working on collections for Jennifer Lopez, Nicki Minaj, and Adam Levine, under the leadership of Tommy Hilfiger.
While that experience was formative, it also opened my eyes to fashion’s environmental and social impact. I couldn’t reconcile the fast fashion models I was working within, so I pivoted from fast fashion to luxury, and moved to Hong Kong. There, I transitioned into luxury advertising and creative direction, traveling back and forth to Paris to develop campaigns across the Asia-Pacific region. While in Hong Kong, I began volunteering with Redress- a nonprofit focused on reducing textile waste and promoting circular design- work that grounded my sustainability perspective and shifted the trajectory of my career.
After 5 years and two babies in Hong Kong, I returned to Nashville and began teaching fashion at Belmont University’s O’More School of Design. During COVID, I applied to Yale University School of Management, and then completed my MBA in Sustainability. Grad school is where I started actively pitching technology solutions for circularity in fashion, exploring how policy, innovation, and digital tools could enable supply chain transformation.
Today, I’m the Co-Founder and CEO of Threadline, a resale technology company that enables brands to monetize circularity through one-click resale integration. I’m also the author of the textbook ‘Sustainability and Social Change in Fashion’ (Bloomsbury, forthcoming 2026), which equips audiences with frameworks for climate action, social equity, and sustainability in fashion. In addition, I co-founded the Tennessee Fashion Council- a statewide initiative designed to grow Tennessee’s fashion industry with a focus on sustainability, innovation, and economic development, a fiscally sponsored project of the Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville. And most importantly, I’m a mom to Pierce and Bohen, and a Girl Scout leader, which keeps me deeply connected to creativity, community, and the next generation of changemakers.
At the core of my journey is a commitment to building with purpose- whether in business, education, or parenting. I believe creativity becomes powerful when paired with clarity, integrity, and disciplined execution. The work I do in fashion technology, sustainability, and community development is driven by a desire to create meaningful, lasting change, and I carry that same intention into how I show up as a parent. Ultimately, I’m working toward a future where innovation and responsibility can coexist.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It hasn’t always been a smooth road- but I think many of the challenges became the catalysts for my growth.
Leaving Hong Kong and reentering American life was incredibly challenging. I had built a career there at the intersection of luxury fashion and advertising, and returning to Nashville as a new mother meant completely redesigning my personal and professional identity. Figuring out what actually inspires me- and how to create meaningful change in a system as complex as the fashion industry- took a lot of soul searching.
Applying to Yale was hard, and studying at Yale was way harder than I expected. It pushed me intellectually and personally- in terms of confidence, not just academic rigor. Good lord, I watched grown men weep in the hallway during that program. Launching a startup on top of graduate school was another uphill climb. In the first few years at Threadline, we navigated emerging technologies like blockchain before ultimately pivoting to more scalable, cloud-based API solutions. Finding the right CTO, building the entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem around me, and applying to incubators, accelerators and competitions all required significant effort and persistence. It helped when I started winning them.
Securing grant funding, and juggling the logistics of international fashion conferences – which became a major catalyst for Threadline- was hard, as was showing up in rooms where sustainability, tech, and fashion rarely converged. Meeting people, building trust, and aligning with partners across the industry to drive positive change has been a process. And in the middle of all of that, I accepted an offer write a textbook.
The tactical and unglamorous work of a startup- reading contracts, negotiating terms, knocking on doors, pitching, often hearing ‘not yet’- has been hard. And doing all of this as a newly co-parenting mother added a layer of logistical complexity that most founder stories don’t include.
But wanting to set an example for my children was easy. I’ve always believed there are better systems of doing things, and I wanted to show them that it’s possible to imagine new approaches and then bring them to life. Leading with purpose- demonstrating that resilience and creativity can coexist, and that meaningful work can grow from clarity and vision- that has always been the goal.
We’ve been impressed with Threadline.tech, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Threadline is a fashion technology company that makes resale effortless. Our solution lets people resell clothing with one click by using a QR code attached to the garment. When scanned, it automatically pulls in everything needed for a resale listing, like size, color, brand, measurements, and images. That listing can then go straight to platforms like Poshmark, streamlining the labor of the traditional listing process.
What makes us different is that every time an item resells through Threadline, the original brand earns a commission. This realigns incentives: instead of profit coming only from selling new products, brands are rewarded when their products live longer. At the same time, consumers benefit from a frictionless experience where reselling clothes is as easy as scanning them in their closets.
We specialize in
• one-click resale activation
• connecting product data to marketplace systems through an open API
• plug-and-play technology
• enabling sustainability compliance through real, traceable data
Our technology is platform-agnostic, meaning it can connect to multiple digital ID providers and multiple resale marketplaces, which sets us apart from closed-loop competitors. We believe circularity shouldn’t require large operational changes. It should just work.
What I’m most proud of is helping shift fashion from a model of one-time use to one built around value over time. Our work shows that sustainability can be profitable, not just good for reputation. We help brands move from “make more” to “make better.”
If readers remember one thing, I hope it’s this:
Clothing doesn’t have to lose value when it changes hands. The industry just hasn’t had the tools to capture that value yet. Threadline makes it possible- for brands to earn from longevity, for consumers to profit from their wardrobes, and for garments to stay in use instead of ending up in landfills.
We exist to make fashion circularity practical, measurable, and financially rewarding: for brands, consumers, and the planet.
How do you define success?
I define success as having a growth mindset and the courage to follow a vision, even when it seems uncertain. I’ve learned that so much of this journey is a mental game: believing it’s possible, staying present in the hard moments, and showing up with clarity and conviction when it counts.
But success also looks like active health, joy, and a lot of silliness- especially with my kids. It means giving myself room to think, create, and be inspired. To take on new projects and build community- I actively protect white space in my family’s life because that’s where the fun happens. It’s where we connect back to ourselves and remember *why* we’re doing all this.
At its core, success for me is being able to lead with purpose, execute with excellence, and still maintain the freedom to explore ideas, and let curiosity drive my family forward. When we can grow, create, and enjoy the process- that is success for us.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.threadline.tech/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tnfashioncouncil/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laciethorne/
