From our couch to your closet: The story of ClosetGems
How it all started
You know those weird, hazy days between Christmas and New Year? The ones where nobody really knows what day it is, you’ve watched too much Netflix, and you’re just sort of… existing on the sofa?
That’s exactly where ClosetGems was born.
We are Oliver and Evelien. We’re a husband-and-wife team (newlyweds, actually!) based in Belgium. And honestly, we didn’t set out to start a tech company. We just wanted to solve a morning argument.
The “I Have Nothing to Wear” Paradox
It started with a sigh. Evelien was frustrated. She has a closet full of lovely things, but actually seeing them?Putting them together? That was a different story.
She turned to me on the sofa and said, “Hey honey, I have an idea, and you’re allowed to build it for me.”
She didn’t want enterprise software. She didn’t want a monthly subscription that costs as much as a gym membership. She just wanted a way to:
Snap a photo of her clothes.
Have an AI do the boring work (tagging color, season, brand).
Ask a smart chatbot: “I’m going to a restaurant tonight, what should I wear?”
Existing apps were either too expensive or so bloated with features you needed a PhD to use them.
Challenge accepted
Now, here is where I (Oliver) come in. I’ve been running a digital agency for 12 years. Building digital products is what I do. And since I had finished Netflix for the week, I thought: Challenge accepted.
I built the first version of ClosetGems in about three hours that afternoon.
I wanted it to be simple. Fast. No manual data entry. I even threw in a little bonus feature while I was at it: a way to mark items as ‘Sold’ or ‘Moved to Graveyard.’ (I figured if we’re going to organize the closet, we might as well see how much cash we make from the second-hand sales, right? That was my little “win” in the process).
Why we kept going
When Evelien started using it, something clicked. It wasn’t just a fun little project anymore; it was actually useful. It saved time. It made the morning rush less chaotic.
We realized that if we needed this simple, no-nonsense tool, other people probably did too.
So, we decided to share it.
ClosetGems isn’t run by a faceless board of directors. It’s run by us.
Oliver: The builder, the tech geek, and the guy trying to minimize the “clothing chair” in the bedroom.
Evelien: The visionary, the daily user, and the one who makes sure the AI actually understands style.
We are building this for us, which means we are building it for you. No bloat. No data-selling nonsense. Just a really good digital closet that helps you love your clothes again.
Thanks for letting us into your wardrobe.
— Oliver & Evelien
