Fashion Forward

Jill Hudson Neal, a fashion editor and reporter, returns to campus to discuss fashion as it relates to the 2008 presidential nominees.

Medford/Somerville, Mass. [03.27.08] At the age of eight, Jill Hudson Neal (A'92) remembers sitting in her room, scouring the pages of Vogue, ripping out the photos of glamorous people to tape to her wall. Now, 31 years later, Neal finds herself on the producing end of magazine publication.

Neal, former design editor for Washington Post Magazine and newly named editor-in-chief of Washingtonian Bride, will return to campus March 27 to discuss "Fashion on the Campaign Trail," the first in a series of alumni lectures at the new Center for the Humanities at Tufts.

Neal says she decided to attend Tufts to experience life outside of suburban Washington and, at the time, only had a vague idea that she wanted to be a journalist.

"I didn't do much beyond the straightforward English major program while at Tufts," Neal says. "At that point all I knew was that I didn't want to do creative writing. I have always been a hyper-curious person, and I was really interested in how the news business worked and how news was gathered."

After graduation, Neal spent just over a year in New York City before coming back to D.C. and applying at the Post.

"I got a job as a copy aide, which is exactly what it sounds like, passing out faxes and handing out papers," she says. "It was only a short time before I found out who the fashion editor was and approached her to offer my services. Within two months I was her assistant and I had my own weekly column."

It wasn't long before Neal learned that the Post wanted its writers to "go the hard news route first." Even though she knew she wanted to be a fashion writer, she left and went to the Baltimore Sun to cover the police beat. Neal worked at the Sun from 1996 to 1999, when she left to try her hand in public relations, eventually coming back to the Post in 2001 as the design editor.

During her second tenure with the Post, Neal said she did everything "from soup to nuts" for home and design, co-edited the popular column "Date Lab," which set readers up on blind dates and detailed their experiences, and wrote a column called "Still Me: A Cool Mom's Guide to Staying Hip."

Now moving on to the Washingtonian Bride, a new publication offshoot of Washingtonian magazine, Neal says she is excited to be able to work on something from the ground up.

"I personally hated every minute of planning my own wedding," Neal admits. "I found it to be a really stressful time, and I hope that maybe we can offer a guide to women to make this a much easier process."

During her Tufts presentation, Neal hopes to take a unique look at the 2008 presidential race, as she tries to uncover what each candidate is looking to express through his or her wardrobe.

"How they dress says a lot about who they are," Neal says. "If you think that any of these candidates just looks into their closets and picks any old thing to wear, you're wrong.

"I am particularly interested in Hillary Clinton. We have never had a woman be the leader of the United States and she has crafted a very meticulous image for herself. This is someone who has been in the public eye for over 20 years now, and the way she looked back in 1992 is drastically different than the look she is going for now."

Looking back on her career in journalism, Neal notes that it is a very challenging field, best suited for the strong of heart.

"Journalism is a very difficult industry," Neal says. "It is not for people who were born with little self confidence. You need to have the ability to self-soothe, because if you are looking for validation from your editor, you may not always get it.

"There is a truism in journalism that you don't hear from people until they are p---ed off. It took me a long time to understand that you have to keep your head up, keep learning and try to focus on the big picture. You are not going to love everything you write, you may only love 10 pieces a year, but just try to do your best with every story and become a better writer and a better reporter with each one."

Profile written by Kaitlin Melanson, Web Communications