Anne Eustis Pepper Stewart (August 23, 1964 – November 12, 2017), known as Wendy Pepper, was a fashion designer best known for finishing third and becoming 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.
Project Runway season 1 (2004–05)
The beginning
Pepper, a 39-year-old mother and wife, competed in the first season of Project Runway. Due to being the oldest female contestant of the season and a mother, Pepper earned her nickname "The Longshot". After making two critically-panned dresses in the season's first two episodes,
In late December 2004, all two hundred units of Pepper's winning cocktail dress, priced US$188 ($ in ), were then sold online and, for two days, at select Banana Republic stores as a "limited edition" for the company's winter collection. The dress ran out of stock online within three hours after its availability. The local fundraiser overall garnered US$29,000 ($ in ). Mediaweek magazine named her an emerging "bona fide villain". Chicago Tribune cited Pepper's motherliness as her disguise and lambasting other contestants' works for her two-facedness.
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." Up to this point, the judges had found her "sensible" works usually "dowdy and matronly". 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.
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". The judges found Pepper to have "lacked focus and a distinct voice" and been less consistent throughout the season, noted Penelope M. Carrington of Richmond Times-Dispatch. One of judges Michael Kors praised Pepper's tailoring but found her collection to be "out of step for her". 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.
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. 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.
Post-Project Runway activities
After Project Runway, Pepper opened her first fashion store in Middleburg in spring 2005. as part of the "light blue" team, which finished last in one challenge. She became one of the "light blue" teammates eliminated. She also won a poker round in Celebrity Poker Showdown that same year, qualifying her for the Championship round. 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. 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. In 2012, she re-competed in the second season of Project Runway All Stars and a husband Robert Downing, a carpenter
Death
Pepper died at age 53 in Middleburg, Virginia, on November 12, 2017,