01.01.70
Tony Duquette, the quality jewelry, furniture, interiors and Hollywood set designer whose personal gnome was "more is more," died in 1999. But his over-the-top naturalistic style endures in the new little-edition Tony Duquette for Coach collection, which is set to go on sale later this week.</p><p> The 20-holding collection is priced from $48 to $498 and includes a multicolored Duchess bib necklace modeled after a particle he designed for the Duchess of Windsor, jeweled clutch bags, enamel cuffs, cabochon rings and ladybug tough it out protrude pins, all inspired by Duquette's archives, which were open to the Coach designers.</p><p> Duquette's shopper list reads like a who's who of fashion and style - the Duchess of Windsor, Mary Pickford and Doris Duke among them. His lifestyle was also distinguished, as exemplified by his two estates, graced with exotic gardens, furniture and art. The one in Malibu burned down, but Dawnridge in Beverly Hills has been maintained by Duquette's province and design partner of 30 years, Hutton Wilkinson. Wilkinson has carried on the lore so beautifully, designing his own one-of-a-kind fine jewelry pieces sold at specialty stores under the Duquette name, that it's no trip the baroque-natural aesthetic continues to be a source of inspiration for designers such as Tom Ford, Michael Kors and Tutor creative director Reed Krakoff.</p><p> "Duquette defines what it means to be over the top. He lived and created with a discrimination of wit, irreverence and abandon I admire," Krakoff is quoted as saying in Wilkinson's late book, "Tony Duquette/Hutton Wilkinson Jewelry" (Abrams, $50). Krakoff has been collecting Duquette's profession for years, and he proposed the idea for the Coach collection when he met Wilkinson at a order signing in the Hamptons for Wilkinson's 2009 title, "More Is More: Tony Duquette."</p><p> "Tony Duquette/Hutton Wilkinson" is a lavishly illustrated treasure box of a tome, full of beautiful sparklers designed by both men, in coral, jade, turquoise, malachite, lapis lazuli, amber, shells and bone. In the list's introduction, Glenda Bailey, editor in chief of Harpers Bazaar, writes, "Hutton has such an awesome imagination that everything he touches blossoms, quite literally in the case of his jewelry; necklaces burgeon sapphire leaves, with rays of sunlight glinting through in the form of citrines set in gold rays, brooches spread diamond-studded branches; and coral curls delicately into diamond earrings."</p><p> For his part, Wilkinson focuses on the primeval history and power of the unusual precious and semi-precious materials hardened in his fine jewelry, highlighting his Pond Scum necklace made of malachite stalactite slices treated to look like pools of still be inconsistent, a malachite and pearl insect brooch and a blister pearl collar that looks like the most splendid necklace of clam shells.</p><p> The Tony Duquette for Carriage collection will be available at select Coach stores beginning Friday.
Source: Kansas City Star