Tasha Lewis

Tasha Lewis, PhD, is the Nina Mae Mattus Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Human Sciences, where she teaches courses in Fashion and Retail Studies. Prior to joining the College of Education and Human Ecology, she was an associate professor at Cornell University where she taught courses in fashion design management and served as a contributing faculty member for Bank of America’s Institute for Women’s Entrepreneurship and eCornell.

Lewis is widely published in journals such as the Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, Fashion Practice and the Journal of Textile Design Research and Practice. She has contributed to four textbooks: Sustainable Apparel, Global Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion, Successful Technological Integration for Competitive Advantage in Retail Settings and The Fashion Business Reader: An Interdisciplinary and Global Approach, both from Bloomsbury Publishing.

She has worked in the apparel industry in areas of production, sourcing and retail operations and maintains ongoing contact with industry professionals to inform her research. She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Fashion, Style, and Popular Culture and is a member of Educators for Socially Responsible Apparel Practices.

PhD, Cornell University, Fiber Science and Apparel Design, 2009

MS, The Ohio State University, Consumer and Textile Science, 2000

BA, The Ohio State University, Spanish Language and Literature, 1995

• Apparel and Textile Manufacture
• Apparel and Textile Marketing Management
• Apparel and Textiles, General
• Consumer Merchandising/Retailing Management
• Fashion and Retail Studies
  • Brand behavior
  • Sustainability and social responsibility
  • Technology adoption
• Textile Science

Tasha Lewis’ primary research has focused on environmental issues that influence the development of sustainable fashion products and the supporting manufacturing processes for these products in order to assess value for the fashion supply chain. Her recent work has been in the area of post-consumer textile waste and how it can be managed in a scalable way to increase diversion of waste from landfills. She has received research funding from both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Walmart Foundation’s U.S. Manufacturing Innovation Fund to study how best to advance this work. Additional research interests include the impact of technology in the fashion industry and the significance of sustainability and social responsibility throughout the apparel supply chain.

Lewis, T.L. & Netravali, A.N. (Awarded 2016). Post-Consumer Textile Waste as a Raw Material
Substitute for New Textiles. Walmart Foundation, U.S. Manufacturing Innovation Fund.
$148,814.
    
Fan, J., Park, H., Lewis, T.L., Kan, E., & Yang, R. (Awarded 2015). Thermoregulatory Clothing
System for Building Energy Saving. U.S. Department of Energy, Advanced Research
Projects Agency-Energy. $2,996,807.

Hancock, J., Wyatt, N., & Lewis, T.L. (Awarded 2014). Made in the USA: Brands Changing the
Fabric of Our Lives. Cotton Incorporated. $40,000.

Lewis, T.L., Netravali, A.N., & Park, H. (Awarded 2013). Process for Management of Textile Waste Generated from Redesigned Secondhand Clothing Production in Haiti: No-Waste Design, Upcycling and Repurposing. United States Environmental Protection Agency. $11,923.

Trejo, H.X., & Lewis, T.L. (2020). Setting the scene for slow fashion: Digital explorations of New York’s fiberscape. Journal of Fashion, Style and Popular Culture, 7(2-3), 281-295.

Lewis, TL, & Loker, S. (2019). Industry leadership toward sustainable fashion through user consumer engagement. In A. Gwilt, A. Payne, E.A. Ruthschilling (Eds.), Global Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Trejo, H.X., Smith, H.A., Trejo, N.K., & Lewis, T.L. (2019). Made in New York: A collaborative model to encourage slow fashion. Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, 37(3), 139-154.

Czajkowski, C., & Lewis, T.L. (2019). Yoga, facebook and fandom: Examining brand devotion by lululemon customers using social media. In J. Hancock and A. Peirson-Smith (Eds.), The Fashion Business Reader: An Interdisciplinary & Global Approach. London: Bloomsbury.

Trejo, H.X., & Lewis, T.L. (2018). Seeing raw fibers: Collaborating with fiber farmers to develop tacit knowledge in a fiber sorting, grading, and classing apprenticeship. Journal of Textile Design Research and Practice, 1-21.

Lewis, T.L., & Loker, S. (2017). Trying on the future: Exploring apparel retail employees’ perspectives on advanced in-store technologies. Fashion Practice, 9(1), 95-119.

Lewis, T.L., Zeng, X., Sanchez, V., & Fan, J.  (2017). Environmental evaluation of fabric dyeing and water use for a global apparel manufacturer. AATCC Journal of Research, 4(1), 1-13.  

Trejo, H.X., & Lewis, T.L. (2017). Slow fashion and fiber farming: Nexus for community engagement. Fashion Practice, 9(1), 120-142.  

Lewis, T.L., Park, H., Netravali, A.N., & Trejo, H.X. (2016). Closing the loop: A scalable zero-waste model for apparel reuse and recycling. International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology & Education.

Hancock, J.H., Wyatt, N.N., & Lewis, T.L. (Eds.) (2016). Cotton: Companies, Fashion & the Fabric of Our Lives. Bristol, United Kingdom: Intellect Ltd.

Lewis, T.L., & Pringle, A. (2015). Local Buttons: Social entrepreneurship and sustainability in Haiti. NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art, Special Issue on Black Fashion.

Lewis, T.L. (2015). Apparel disposal and reuse. In R. Blackburn (Ed.), Sustainable Apparel. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Woodhead Publishing.

Lewis, T.L., & Loker, S. (2014). Technology usage intent among apparel retail employees. International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, 42(5), 422-440.

Lewis, T.L., & Loker, S. (2015). Adoption of emerging in-store technology interfaces for the apparel retail employee. In E. Pantano (Ed.), Successful Technological Integration for Competitive Advantage in Retail Settings. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Lewis, T.L., & Haas, B. (2014). Managing an iconic old luxury brand in a new luxury economy: Hermès handbags in the U.S. market. In J. Hancock, V. Manlow, G. Mratovski, A. Peirson-Smith (Eds.), Global Fashion Brands: Style, Luxury & History. Bristol, United Kingdom: Intellect Ltd.

Lewis, T.L., & Gray, N.E. (2013). The maturation of hip-hop’s menswear brands: Outfitting the urban consumer. Fashion Practice, 5(2), 229-244.

Micro-manufacturing for a Circular Fashion Economy: Exploring Ideas for Reclaimed Apparel. Poster session presented at the International Textile Apparel Association annual conference, November 2018, Cleveland, OH.

Controlling Changing Climates: Consumer Preferences for an Energy-Saving Garment. Paper delivered at the International Textile Apparel Association annual conference, November 2016, Vancouver, Canada.

Teaching Entrepreneurial Skills as a Means for Social Change. Panel presentation at the 2016 Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (GCEC), University of Rochester, September 2016, Rochester, NY.

Green Is the New Black: Sustainability in Fashion. Guest panelist at Loyola Law School, The Fashion Law Project Symposium, April 2016, Los Angeles, CA.

Equipment and Process Development for Management of Post-Consumer Textile Waste in Haiti. Paper delivered at the Fifth International Fiber Recycling Symposium, June 2015, San Francisco, CA.

Secondhand Clothing, Development, and Transformation in Haiti. Paper delivered at the annual meeting of the International Textile and Apparel Association, November 2014, Charlotte, NC.

A Survey of Current Consumer Technology Use for Apparel Shopping. Poster delivered at the annual meeting of the International Textile and Apparel Association, October 2013, New Orleans, LA.

Digital Fashion Startups: Leveraging Consumer-Facing Technology for Improved Fit and Virtual Try-on. Paper delivered at the annual conference on Retailing and Consumer Services Science (EIRASS), July 2013, Philadelphia, PA.

Mass Customization: Design and Production Considerations. Paper delivered at the annual meeting of the International Textile and Apparel Association, November 2012, Honolulu, HI.

Beyond the Register: Apparel Retail Employee Response to Using Advanced Technologies for Customer Interaction. Paper delivered at the annual meeting of the International Textile and Apparel Association, October 2010, Montreal, QC, Canada.

Consumer Preferences for Wearable Technology. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, June 2010, Cleveland, OH.

The Sustainable Brand: A Company Level System. Paper delivered at the annual conference of the International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institutes (IFFTI), March 2010, Taipei, Taiwan.