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Local 'Project Runway' finalist teams up with Patsy Cline nonprofit
Next spring, Loudoun's claim to fame in the fashion world will unveil a dress made to honor a local country music legend.
Wendy Pepper, of Middleburg, is teaming up with the nonprofit Celebrating Patsy Cline Inc. to recreate one of the dresses the singer wore while performing in the 1950s.
“She brings to the table so much for us,” said Tracie Dillon, CPC special events chairwoman.
Pepper finished third in the first season of the reality television series "Project Runway."
The partnership was announced Nov. 2 at The Coach Stop restaurant in Middleburg.
CPC is working to restore Cline's house at 608 S. Kent St. in Winchester and open it to the public.
Cline enjoyed success as a country music artist in the 1950s, continuing until her death in a plane crash in 1963 at the age of 30. Her hits include “Crazy,” “I Fall To Pieces” and “Walkin' After Midnight.”
Several artifacts and memorabilia will be on display in the home. The CPC board of directors hopes to open the home to the public in September 2010.
The dress Pepper recreates will be displayed in a room Cline's mother Hilda Patterson Hensley used for sewing.
Cline's original dresses are not being displayed in the house since they are old and the nonprofit doesn't want them to be ruined.
Pepper said she plans to leave the dress unfinished to make it look like a work in progress.
The dress CPC chose for Pepper to recreate is one the singer made with her mother around 1956. Cline wore it for an appearance on the Jimmy Dean show in Washington, D.C., in the mid-1950s.
The dress is made of a blue rayon type of material with lots of fringe and rhinestones. At the waist are the four suits you see on playing cards, said CPC president Judy Sue Huyett-Kempf. The suits on the original dress were made of white felt and cut out by Cline, Huyett-Kempf said, adding that CPC is very excited to be partnering with Pepper.
“She knows exactly what we want,” Huyett-Kempf said. “Wendy is going to share a dream we have had for many many years.”
Pepper called the style of dress a very feminine sort of “playful cowgirl” look.
“I really love it,” she said.
Pepper said attempting to recreate something instead of coming up with her own ideas will be out of the norm for her.
“I like the challenge,” she said.
Pepper is also designing a T-shirt for CPC that should be available in March.
For more information on CPC and its upcoming events, log on to www.celebratingpatsycline.org.
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