Fantastical, delirious, dancing with color and precious materials, and at times even a bit bizarre, design legend Tony Duquette was renowned for his over-the-top aesthetic in interiors, jewelry, costumes, and set design, a maximalist American icon who lived and worked in Los Angeles yet affected residences and stages across the globe, with a roster of distinguished clients that included the likes of Elizabeth Arden, the Duchess of Windsor, and Herb Albert. The first American to stage a one-man show at the Louvre in Paris, this artist and interior designer also created sets for MGM studios and fashioned Tony Award-winning costumes for the original Broadway production of Camelot. With a flamboyance that reverberates joy and an intricate elegance that sings an exquisite charm, Tony Duquette inspires us to this day, flooding our consciousness with color, texture, and material that excites and enchants, meticulously sublime with a touch of the surreal.
“More is more” is the mantra that governed the audacious style of Tony Duquette, and with walls, floors, and ceilings coated with objects saturated in color and pattern, Duquette interiors are intricately involved without feeling overwhelming, whether outfitting a private residence in Brentwood or Beverly Hills or summoning the beauty and luxury of the Palazzo Brandolini in Venice, Italy. Pieces that adorn his interiors are often custom-crafted, at first designed by the artist himself and embellished with precious materials like crystals and abalone shells, his personal favorite, and later reproduced by sister companies Pearson and Maitland Smith. From the Duke sofa, originally designed for Tobacco heiress Doris Duke, to the wonderous gilded console table designed for art patrons Palmer and Charles Ducommun, an adventurous piece that has been described as resembling a writing sea creature or a roller coaster on Mars, Tony Duquette pieces engage the imagination and bring new meaning to luxury and fantasy, earning the signature of what Architectural Digest referred to as “Space Age Baroque”, embellishments that suggest dreams of the past while looking toward a mystical future filled with the beautiful and the strange.
Where a clean minimalism evokes serenity and calm, and arouses the senses with the sophistication of simplicity, Tony Duquette’s maximalism is indulgent and electrifying, crafting environments that envelop the soul with a skilled opulence and prosperity of inspiration. Today Duquette’s business partner of 30 years, Hutton Wilkinson, carries the torch of the brand since the wake of Duquette’s passing in 1999, continuing to disseminate his inspired magic to interiors, jewelry, and customized themed events with the rarified refinement and ornate sophistication that launched the brand into fame, expressing the individuality and distinguished taste of its discerning clientele. With a legacy of exceptional style and fantastical vision, the Tony Duquette brand endures as a reminder of what it means to live life with lavish poise and a fabulous sense of the exquisite and the sumptuous on a refined voyage of wonder and whimsy.
February 2024
