While Wendy Pepper was learning to weave in the back country of Nepal, she often thought of Oatlands, hoping that someday she might return to Northern Virginia to help protect the plantation she loves and where she spent the happiest years of her childhood.

It never occurred to her that, at the close of 2004, she would be living in Middleburg and starring in a cable television show called "Project Runway" with eleven talented fashion designers chosen from thousands who auditioned across the country. Three of the final twelve will be chosen to present a collection of original designs at Fashion Week in New York City at the Spring 2005 shows. One will be chosen the winner.

Will Wendy be one of the final three designers chosen for even more national and international recognition? Will she even make the cut week after week as "Project Runway" evolves on the Bravo network? Only by watching each weekly episode from the December 1st launch Wednesdays at 10 pm will you know.

One thing, however, is certain. The young girl who returned to Virginia from Ohio with her mother following her parent's divorce – who grew up at Oatlands and who still speaks passionately about the power of creative, independent women like her grandmother – has a real opportunity to become so successful that she would be able to play a role in the development of the Northern Virginia economy.

"I have no fashion sense personally," says the classically beautiful designer. "Fashion is simply a language for me, a vocabulary which allows me to communicate the beauty and refinement of a well-ordered, well-balanced life."

Her life speaks volumes about why she is so determined to make a contribution to Oatlands, and now, to Middleburg. These are the aspects of her history that have set her standards of elegance and beauty. These are the chapters of her life that shaped all her references for happiness and courage.

Anne Emmett, Wendy's mother, was the daughter of Ambassador Grenville Emmet, envoy to the Netherlands and to Austria before World War II. Anne Eustis Emmet, Wendy's grandmother, was the daughter of William Corcoran Eustis, the grandson of banker and philanthropist William Wilson Corcoran.

Edith Morton Eustis, Wendy's great grandmother, was the daughter of Levi Morton, Vice President under Benjamin Harrison. Edith's husband died in 1921, but she lived at her beloved Oatlands until her death in 1964. Edith's daughters inherited Oatlands, and gave the estate to The National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1965. Oatlands was named a National Historic Landmark in 1972.

Wendy's mother, Anne, married Charles Pepper and moved to Dayton, Ohio, where Wendy and her brother, Jeremy, were born.

After her parent's divorce, Wendy returned to Oatlands and the Washington, D.C. area. For years her family made weekend visits to the property, where Wendy first began to learn about her family and what a determination and vision could accomplish.

After grammar school at Potomac and boarding school at Madeira, Wendy attended Barnard before making a decision to travel to Nepal and Tibet. "My experience there was so formative," she remembers. "I learned to be calm, measured and careful. I learned to weave and dye fabric as I learned about myself."

After a time in the Peace Corps, she decided to finish her anthropology degree in Seattle, Washington, where the flourishing regional art scene set the stage for a career choice that no one could have anticipated.

When did Wendy begin designing dresses?

"About fifteen years ago, exclusively for friends," she says. "I had married, moved to Middleburg, had a daughter and needed something to do. Fashion had always been an important aspect of life for me. I still remember specific pages from Vogue Magazine in the 60s and 70s….Richard Avedon photographs, elegant lines, unforgettable places."

"I'm certain I'm not the only woman alive who owes a debt to Diana Vreeland, the editor of Vogue in those years, for my sense of style. She shaped us all, and we all still respond to her code and standards."

"My grandmother's sister, my great Aunt Margaret (Margaret Morton Eustis) married David Finley, director of the National Gallery. He was a close friend of Jacqueline Kennedy and they were great correspondents. I named my daughter Finley in remembrance of them, but my images of them and that era are of beauty, romance, elegance and civility."

"That's what I want to create. We should all be able to enjoy those aspects of life, if we wish."

How did she learn of the Project Runway auditions?

"Last year, Rita Mace Walston did a story on me in Loudoun Magazine. She remembered me when she started working on a feature on fashion at Oatlands, and I had to scurry around calling friends to ask if they would lend me dresses I'd made for them to be photographed for the article."

One of those friends asked Wendy if she'd read about the auditions for the Bravo network's competition to find the most talented new fashion designers in America. She had not.

But, upon reflection, and with considerable encouragement from her husband, Robert Downing, she investigated and found there was only one audition left, in Miami, Florida.

"My father lives in Palm Beach, so I called him and said '…bring your camera and please pick me up at the airport… I'm going to give this a shot,' " Wendy remembers. "It was insane, I'm more of a hider…this was totally out of character…but it was a time when I really needed to get serious about what I was doing, and I definitely needed a better income, so I headed to Miami for what they called 'Last Call.'"

Suffice it to say, Wendy Pepper did well at the Miami Last Call. She made the cut as one of the designers chosen to go to New York City for the finals, and she made the cut there.

Look for more about Wendy's progress on Project Runway next month in the Eccentric, as we get to know her competition, supermodel hostess Heidi Klum, and all the designer and fashionista judges.