Wendy Pepper

Wendy Pepper
Born
Anne Eustis Pepper

(1964-08-23)August 23, 1964
Dayton, Ohio, U.S.
DiedNovember 12, 2017(2017-11-12) (aged 53)
Washington D.C., U.S.
Other namesAnne Eustis Pepper Stewart
OccupationFashion designer
Known forProject Runway season 1 (3rd place)
Spouse
Robert Downing
​
(div. 2006)​
Children1

Anne Eustis Pepper Stewart[1][2] (August 23, 1964 – November 12, 2017), known as Wendy Pepper, was a fashion designer best known for finishing as the second runner-up in the first season (2004–05) of the American reality television series Project Runway. She also made other television appearances, like the second season (2012) of Project Runway All Stars.

Early life and education

Pepper was born in Dayton, Ohio, to her mother Anne Livingston Emmet and father Charles Willing Pepper and then raised in Washington, D. C. She had three brothers and a sister.[2] She graduated from the Potomac School and the Madeira School.[2] Furthermore, she earned her degree in anthropology from the University of Washington and previously resided in Nepal.[2][3]

Project Runway season 1 (2004–05)

The beginning

Pepper, a 39-year-old mother and wife, competed in the first season of Project Runway.[4] Due to being the oldest female contestant of the season and a mother, Pepper earned her nickname "The Longshot".[3] When the series was filming in that summer, she turned forty.[5] After making two critically-panned dresses in the season's first two episodes,[3] in the following (third) episode, her holiday cocktail dress—"a navy empire-waist silk tank dress with a two-button capelet"—was the highest-scored in the cocktail dress challenge primarily because it was considerably easier to manufacture than Jay McCarroll's "Art Deco-inspired" one (highly praised by the judges), leading the series's sponsor Banana Republic to produce Pepper's dress.[6][7]

In late December 2004, all two hundred units of Pepper's winning cocktail dress, priced US$188 ($320 in 2025), were then sold online and, for two days, at select Banana Republic stores as a "limited edition" for the company's winter collection.[6][8][9] The dress ran out of stock online within three hours after its availability.[9] Sales of the dress were donated to Dress for Success, a nonprofit organization intended to help low-income women prepare for employment.[6] On February 9, 2005, Pepper auctioned off one of remaining copies of her winning cocktail dress alongside a handbag designed for the dress and a donated third-party jewelry all together for US$1,750 ($2,880 in 2025) to benefit Project HOPE's tsunami relief fundraiser, hosted by the Middleburg Business and Professional Association at the Middleburg Community Center.[9][10] The local fundraiser overall garnered US$29,000 ($48,000 in 2025).[5]

Midway

As the season progressed, Pepper's methods to become one of the three finalists, exemplified by her responses to the judges about other contestants in jeopardy, and her overall talent had met the ire of other contestants[9] and viewers, especially those interested in primarily fashion. Surveyed by The Philadelphia Inquirer, thirteen Drexel University students, some of them graduates, unanimously found her "conniving" and manipulative and did not want her to become a finalist.[11] Mediaweek magazine named her an emerging "bona fide villain".[12] Chicago Tribune cited Pepper's motherliness as her disguise and lambasting other contestants' works for her two-facedness.[13]

Becoming a finalist

When she became one of the season's four remaining contestants, Women's Wear Daily considered Pepper "clearly the weakest of the bunch" and described her then-planned "Thrill of the Hunt" collection for the season's then-upcoming New York Fashion Week as "too many bustier and corset looks."[14][15] Up to this point, the judges had found her "sensible" works usually "dowdy and matronly".[16] Nonetheless, in the penultimate red carpet dress challenge, the judges, especially Access Hollywood co-host Nancy O'Dell, selected Pepper's dress for O'Dell to wear at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards (February 13, 2005), making Pepper one of the three finalists, much to dismay of contestants and viewers who wanted an eliminated contestant and fan favorite Austin Scarlett to be a finalist.[5][9] By February 2005, Pepper received at least two hundred emails praising her, and her official website received over three thousand visits.[5] In the reunion episode, she displayed her dyed hair and did not wear glasses.[17]

In the Fashion Week, the runway clothes of Pepper's collection "The Thrill of the Hunt" used colors representing autumn—green, brown, red—and features like "feather trims and corset tops".[18] She became the second runner-up by being eliminated before the other two finalists—the first runner-up Kara Saun and the season's winner Jay McCarroll.[19]

Aftermath

Several clothes of Pepper's Fashion Week collection (alongside several others of Saun's and of McCarroll's) were auctioned off via the series's official website by 9 p.m. Eastern on March 2, 2005, when the auction ended. The auction sales were donated to Dress for Success.[20] Pepper told The Washington Post in February 2005 that she planned to remain and establish a business in Middleburg rather than move to New York City or Los Angeles, regardless of the season's results.[9]

Reception

Clifford Pugh of Toronto Star in October 2006 wrote that the series Project Runway emphasized more "on brash personalities", like Pepper and Santino Rice, and less on talent.[21]

Post-Project Runway activities

After Project Runway, Pepper opened her first fashion store in Middleburg in spring 2005.[5] She also participated in Battle of the Network Reality Stars, which premiered on August 17, 2005,[22] as part of the "light blue" team, which finished last in one challenge. She became one of the "light blue" teammates eliminated.[23] She also won a poker round in Celebrity Poker Showdown that same year, qualifying her for the Championship round.[24][25] She then lost the Championship round of the tournament to actor Steven Culp.

Pepper reappeared briefly in the second season premiere of Project Runway, which aired in late 2005, among the panel judging auditions.[26] She alongside Kara Saun and Austin Scarlett made a cameo appearance in Project Jay, an hourlong documentary about Project Runway winner Jay McCarroll, which aired on Bravo on February 22, 2006.[27] In 2012, she re-competed in the second season of Project Runway All Stars[1] and became the second returnee eliminated from the season.

Personal life

Pepper also had a daughter Finley M. Stewart (born 1999 or 2000)[5][28] and a husband Robert Downing, a carpenter[9] whom she divorced by no later than January 2006 after Project Runway.[29]

Death

Pepper died at age 53 in Middleburg, Virginia, on November 12, 2017,[1] from complications of pneumonia after several months of having suffered from cancer.[28] Her memorial was held at Christ Church (Georgetown, Washington, D.C.), on December 1, 2017.[2][28]

Selected filmography

References

  1. ^ a b c Davis, Jennifer (November 17, 2017). "Project Runway Contestant and Fashion Designer Wendy Pepper Dead at 53". InStyle. Archived from the original on November 18, 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Anne Stewart obituary". Legacy.com. November 17, 2017. Retrieved February 18, 2026. Originally published by The Washington Post.
  3. ^ a b c Mason, Felicia (January 2, 2005). "Virginia Fashion Designer Tries to Make It Big on Bravo". Daily Press. Newport News, Virginia. p. H1. ProQuest 343306544.
  4. ^ "Project Runway: From Produce Aisle to Banana Republic". The Washington Post (Final ed.). December 3, 2004. p. C-1. ISSN 0190-8286. ProQuest 409757555.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Carrington, Penelope M. (February 22, 2005). "Hot Pepper". Richmond Times-Dispatch. Richmond, Virginia. p. C-1. ProQuest 423890966. Retrieved February 18, 2026 – via NewsBank.
  6. ^ a b c Donahue, Wendy (December 26, 2004). "Banana Republic to sell Runway dress". Chicago Tribune. section Q, p. 4. ISSN 1085-6706. ProQuest 420291331.
  7. ^ Ryan, Maureen (February 16, 2005). "Catwalk calls". Chicago Tribune. Tempo (5) section, p. 1. ISSN 1085-6706. ProQuest 420342608.
  8. ^ Karnes, Korey (December 20, 2004). "Reality Rewind". Chicago Tribune (RedEye ed.). p. 41. ProQuest 420194419.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Feldmeier, Julie (February 13, 2005). "Fashion First for Middleburg Dressmaker". The Washington Post. Loudoun Extra (LE) section, p. 1. ISSN 0190-8286. ProQuest 409749258.
  10. ^ Mauck, Sandy (February 3, 2005). "Loudoun Community Events Week". The Washington Post. p. T21. ISSN 0190-8286. ProQuest 409913905.
  11. ^ Wellington, Elizabeth (February 2, 2005). "At Drexel, Runway has avid following". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. C-1. ISSN 0885-6613. ProQuest 1905709991. We asked 13 Drexel University students to watch with us last Wednesday's seventh episode of Project Runway, whose new episode premieres tonight at 9.
  12. ^ Frutkin, A.J. (February 21, 2005). "Project Runway in Limbo". Mediaweek. Vol. 15, no. 8. pp. 6 8. ISSN 1055-176X. ProQuest 213637597.
  13. ^ "Reality bites". Chicago Tribune (RedEye ed.). May 10, 2005. p. 25. ISSN 1085-6706. ProQuest 420348740. She pretended to be a mother hen to the designers, but stabbed them in the back by slamming their designs to judges and the camera.
  14. ^ "The Final Countdown". Women's Wear Daily. Vol. 189, no. 25. February 5, 2005. p. 36. ISSN 0149-5380. ProQuest 231101605.
  15. ^ Nachman, Barbara (February 10, 2005). "Best in Show". The Journal News. White Plains, New York. p. E-1. ProQuest 442710995.
  16. ^ Givhan, Robin (February 8, 2005). "Designers in Short Pants". The Washington Post. p. C-1. ISSN 0190-8286. ProQuest 409853895.
  17. ^ Stanley, Alessandra (February 16, 2005). "Hemlines on the Stand: A Design-Off for Fashion Glory". The New York Times. pp. E1, E10. ISSN 0362-4331. ProQuest 92969770.
  18. ^ Collins, Karyn D. (February 23, 2005). "Rutgers graduate among the finalists in Project Runway competition". Asbury Park Press. Asbury Park, New Jersey. p. D-3. ProQuest 437703682.
  19. ^ Aurthur, Kate (February 28, 2005). "Reality Runway Ratings". The New York Times. p. E2. ISSN 0362-4331. ProQuest 92947939, ProQuest 432992353. Among the three, Ms. Pepper, the scheming dressmaker from Virginia, was abolished first by Heidi Klum, the host.
  20. ^ Schuler, Barbara (February 28, 2005). "The Runway winner". Newsday. Long Island, New York. p. B2. ProQuest 279875695.
  21. ^ Pugh, Clifford (October 26, 2006). "Project Runway Good TV, not so fabulous fashion". Toronto Star (Ontario ed.). p. D3. ISSN 0319-0781. ProQuest 439070678. The show places more emphasis on brash personalities than nurturing new talent. (Remember Wendy Pepper and Santino Rice?)
  22. ^ "Reality stars Battle it out in TV series". The Stuart News. Stuart, Florida. August 17, 2005. p. E-5. ISSN 3067-9613. ProQuest 2606243126.
  23. ^ Endicott, Greg (September 5, 2005). "Reality check". The Sacramento Bee (Metro Final ed.). p. E3. ISSN 0890-5738. ProQuest 246599553.
  24. ^ Ballard, Allison (November 17, 2005). "One Tree Hill star Barry Corbin antes up for celebrity poker finals". Star-News. Wilmington, North Carolina. p. 1D. ProQuest 285462520.
  25. ^ Argetsinger, Amy; Roberts, Roxanne (November 22, 2005). "(untitled piece of 'The Reliable Source')". The Washington Post. p. C-3. ISSN 0190-8286. ProQuest 410015013. First she did Battle of the Network Reality Stars, now it's a winning stint on Celebrity Poker Showdown, soon a judging gig on the next Project Runway.
  26. ^ Oldenburg, Ann (December 7, 2005). "Bravo for Project Runway". USA Today (Final ed.). p. D-6. ISSN 0734-7456. ProQuest 408989978.
  27. ^ Ryan, Maureen (February 22, 2006). "Jay McCarroll's got a Project". Chicago Tribune. Tempo section, p. 3. ISSN 1085-6706. ProQuest 420413310.
  28. ^ a b c Goltra, Edith Pepper (2017). "Remembering Wendy Pepper, Fashion Icon, Free Spirit". Middleburg Life. Middleburg, Virginia. Retrieved February 15, 2026.
  29. ^ Ross, Dalton (January 27, 2006). "Hit List". Entertainment Weekly. p. 12. ISSN 1049-0434. EBSCOhost 19543547.

Further reading

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