Former TV reporter Hamilton Northcutt found new career in fashion consulting

After 18 years of looking good on camera, Hamilton Northcutt found her TV career no longer looked so good.

Each day she covered stories for Georgia Public Television, working long and irregular hours under deadline pressure. Each day she knew hundreds of other journalists clamored to take her place. Each day made her older in a profession that demanded she look as young as possible.

“Be on camera as long as you see yourself fitting in,” her former boss and mentor Mike Klein said. “But you need to know that if you are a woman, and you get to be around age 40, they will find a reason to hire someone younger.”

In late 2005, at 39, Northcutt saw local TV cutting budgets and trying to meet the Internet’s changes in news consumption. She looked hard at a risky opportunity to leverage her job skills — and her size 4, Cameron Diaz looks — with no media profile or benefits.

Would she quit TV to lead a group of women like herself, to market upscale clothes to their peers in their homes?

“I was used to having a paycheck every two weeks and benefits,” said Northcutt, who is single and 44. “Thinking about a job that was 100 percent commission with no benefits was very scary for me. In TV, you’re crazy if you leave without another TV job lined up.”

Northcutt relied on her journalistic instinct to research, then accept the position with New York-based Etcetera as an area development manager. She had bought, worn, loved their clothes and even sold with a friend. But making fashion her job? That was like an outfit itself.

“You must try it on to truly experience it and see if you like it,” said her business partner and best friend, Susan Stuart, a lawyer in Marietta.

Northcutt’s mother evaluated the risk more bluntly.

“Everyone has an excuse why they can’t do things, and I don’t have any patience for that,” said Harriett Northcutt. “I would have been disappointed if she had stayed with a job just because it was steady, but was making her whole life unhappy.”

The decision transformed Hamilton Northcutt’s schedule — no more 2 a.m. wakeup calls — and her relationship to her clothes. They no longer simply showcased her to a camera; she was showcasing them wherever she went. She is more “on” now than before.

“Whenever I step out of my door, I am marketing,” she said. “Even when I’m casual, I want something that looks great. I’m used to being in a visible position, but now I’m trying to be visible in a different way, to attract attention to the clothes and the business opportunity of selling Etcetera clothes.”

The direct sales industry — made famous by Tupperware — often attracts self-motivators looking for more flexible work. Northcutt’s consultants “can support a ridiculous clothing habit at the same time,” Stuart said.

Northcutt sees age as a plus for the women selling under her: “Whether they are 30, 50 or 60, our consultants are dynamos who can juggle a lot.” She has 25 working for her, and is recruiting a dozen more. Hers is the top-selling Etcetera group of more than 80 nationwide.

Perrin Adams of Augusta, a fund-raiser for an art museum, wanted work clothes that fit better with her duties as a mother of three.

“I like to be busy, but fun busy,” she said. Wearing Etcetera, she can be selling “when I see people in the carpool line.”

Northcutt reinvents the shopping experience to a demographic that at first puzzled her: women who don’t like to shop. Those who can afford Etcetera’s $175 average price per outfit piece often possess little time, or inclination, to search for the perfect outfit. They can purchase a memorable wardrobe for the season in a single appointment and build on that foundation for the next season.

Similarly, Northcutt has found success as an entrepreneur using the same assets she used as a reporter: initiative in covering news, her poise as a morning anchor, and her people skills.

“She’s beautiful and incredibly well-spoken. She knows lighting and where to stand and how to stand,” Stuart said. “She’s brought all her skills from the past forward into this.”

“My success now is directly related to my skills, work and effort,” said Northcutt, a graduate of Smith College. “In TV, I turned a story in and started over the next day. I didn’t want to stay until someone replaced me who was better only by being 25 years younger. That would have been devastating. I didn’t want to lose my job because I didn’t look great enough.”

Her mentor Klein, a former CNN vice president, tells journalists that reinvention such as Northcutt’s requires “constantly reanalyzing yourself, asking, ‘What do I have?’ ‘What pieces do I need to get to be more valuable?’ ”

That’s the same pitch Northcutt uses to sell her line of classic apparel, such as the A-line skirt and day coat, updated in new textures such as silk, voile and jersey. These pieces catch attention with surprising embellishments like eyelash trim and chunky buttons. They are marketed around the letter C, as wearable on many stages: cocktail parties, church, carpool, conferences, even the cemetery.

Don’t forget competition. Fashion, like daily journalism, is about who’s first, best, cutest, etc.

“At the Breeders’ Cup, a friend from Palm Beach was wearing a $5,000 jacket, and I was wearing a $250 jacket from Etcetera,” said Harriett Northcutt, 68. “She told me she loved my jacket, and I told her I loved it, too.”

The most telling symbol of Northcutt’s reinvention is her name. In TV, news directors begged her to change Hamilton “to Lisa or Tracy or something more user-friendly,” she said.

Working for herself, her name is her calling card.

“I really, really enjoy my work now because what I achieve is based on me.”