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Fashion is in her Jeans Leslie Rudes in her 1978 senior photo
Leslie Rudes ’78 Transitioning from a life in Puerto Rico to a boarding school education in New England is a big change, but for Leslie Rudes ’78, it was a welcomed one that transformed her life. “If it wasn’t for Forman, I wouldn’t be the person I am today,” she says.
Now retired, Rudes is the co-founder of Not Your Daughter’s Jeans (NYDJ), an international brand for Baby Boomer women. These jeans are known for their fashionable look and perfect fit with a “Tummy Tuck” panel in each pair. The wildly successful brand is distributed at thousands of stores worldwide including Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, and Dillard’s. Before entering the fashion field, Leslie did consider going in another direction; she attended Mount Ida College, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Child Development. One might surmise this original interest in education could have begun at Forman, where Rudes formed close relationships with faculty and staff members. She met former Director of Admissions Avis DeWitt Halsey during her first campus visit and “absolutely loved it. I loved the whole feeling of the School; so open, with beautiful dorms. It was totally different from Puerto Rico,” she reminisces. “Mr. Allison was the Vice Principal and he was also my biology teacher. He was a very strict teacher, but he always took the time to help me and explain what I needed to understand. He pushed me academically outside of my comfort zone. A lot of the teachers really helped me.” It was another educator and specialist, Dr. Lillian Strong, who diagnosed Rudes with dyslexia in Puerto Rico. “I was very lucky to have parents who were aware of learning disabilities,” she explains, noting that not many people knew about these differences at the time. It was her parents who found Forman, but Leslie was completely on board from the moment she
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