Tessa Maffucci

Tessa Maffucci holds an M.A. in Fashion Studies and Digital Humanities from The Graduate Center at the City University of New York and a B.A. from New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Her master's thesis was titled "Fashioning Desire at B. Altman & Co.: Ethics and Consumer Culture in Early Department Stores," in which she explored the origins of mass-produced fashion culture and the department store's contribution to the fashion industry today. While studying at The Graduate Center, she worked with Dr. Eugenia Paulicelli on the development of the Fabric of Cultures research and pedagogical lab and also developed The NYC Fashion Index, a collaborative Digital Humanities project mapping the impact of New York Fashion Week using data from Instagram's API. Her writing has appeared in publications including The Fashion Studies Journal, The Bensonhurst Review, and Architectural Digest. She has presented at conferences on fashion and digital: Fashion: Now & Then at LIM (2015-2017), Fashion Colloquia at Domus Academy in Milan (2015), and conferences held within the City University of New York including Global Fashion Capitals Conference (2015), Fashion Studies Research & Pedagogy Conference (2016), and The Fabric of Cultures Conference (2017). Her current research focuses on the intersection of fashion and digital media, with an interest in material culture and identity.