A professor’s unconventional path adds value to her classroom.
Although many students at SCAD Atlanta have dreamed of being in fashion and taken a direct route to get there, that’s not the story of Professor Yasha Morehouse, whose path to our city’s prestigious fashion school was far from circumspect.
Morehouse began her career with an MBA in strategic consulting and research, working at pharmaceutical and biotech companies. A move to San Francisco in 2009 for her husband’s job found her looking for a new job. “None of the positions I was interviewing for were getting me excited, and I started thinking about fashion, as it’s always been a love of mine,” she says. She re-entered the academic world and earned her MFA in fashion design from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
“The massive career change made me nervous, but I loved it, especially the technical design side like pattern making, tailoring and fit,” she says.
After graduating in 2014, Morehouse got a job with childrens wear brand Primary at its inception. As the director of product, her responsibilities included developing and fitting samples, working with domestic and international factories and establishing performance protocols. “That job was such an incredible learning experience, plus it was personal for me because I had just had a baby,” Morehouse says. Once she got the product line for primary.com developed and launched, Morehouse moved on to Stitch Fix, guiding the online shopping service through its menswear launch. “We were the forerunners in fashion tech. It was a fascinating and a non-traditional fashion role and exciting to be a part of,” she says.
In 2017, Morehouse took a position at The Yes, an AI-powered shopping platform acquired by Pinterest to become the shopping functionality now used by the social media giant. During that time, she moved with her family to Nashville. When she was asked to be an adjunct professor of fashion at Belmont University, she jumped at the chance to enter the academic world. “I always loved sharing information as a strategic advisor in the business world, and selfishly, being an educator demands that you are constantly learning, which I love.”
SCAD came calling in early 2021. Morehouse moved her family to Atlanta and became a full-time professor of fashion and graduate coordinator. She teaches technical design, pattern making and concept development, among other skills. Each spring, she works with seniors on a final project to conceptualize and create a fashion collection from the ground up. Given her own unconventional fashion path, Morehouse loves opening students’ eyes to the broad world that is the fashion industry. “So often when people think of fashion, they just think of the creative designer, but there are a million other roles in the industry,” she says. “Sometimes, if a student knows they love fashion, but the creative design part feels like a struggle, I can help them find the bigger picture. Maybe they are more suited to trend forecasting or tech design or textile sourcing.”
When it comes to being fashion forward, Morehouse suggests ANT/DOTE as the store with the most interesting curation of fashion in the city and also recommends connecting with SCAD students and grads for custom items. “You can follow @SCADFashAtl on Instagram to find students whose aesthetic you love and reach out to them directly to make one-of-a kind pieces for you,” she says.
@yashamorehouse
