The maximalist manifesto

For those who aren’t aware of the amazing legacy of this incredible talent, Tony Duquette was a native of Los Angeles, California and an internationally acclaimed artist and designer. Duquette grew up between Los Angeles, California where he wintered with his family and Three Rivers, Michigan where the family lived during the rest of the year. Considered an American design icon, as a student, Duquette was awarded scholarships at both the prestigious Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles and the Yale School of the Theatre. After graduating from Chouinard he began working in promotional advertising, creating special environments for the latest seasonal fashions. He also began to freelance for well-known designers such as the legendary William Haines, James Pendleton and Adrian. In the early 1940’s Duquette’s parents and siblings moved permanently to Los Angeles where Tony had been living since 1935. It was during this time that Duquette was discovered by Lady Elsie de Wolfe Mendl, the international arbiter of taste. Through the patronage of Sir Charles and Lady Mendl, Duquette was able to establish himself as one of the leading designers in Los Angeles, where he worked increasingly for the film Industry. As a young man Tony Duquette created costumes and sets for Fred Astaire musicals with Vincente Minnelli at MGM as well as acclaimed costumes and sets for theater, opera and ballet, his costumes for the original Broadway production of Camelot having garnered him the prestigious Tony Award for Best Costume.

In 1941, he founded the Tony Duquette Studios in Los Angeles, California with which he created a myriad of custom interiors for both residential and commercial installations throughout America and Europe. In 1949 Duquette married the beautiful and talented artist Elizabeth Johnstone at a private ceremony at “Pickfair” with Mary Pickford attending as matron of honor and Buddy Rogers standing as Tony’s best man.
The reception that followed was attended by the who’s who of Hollywood including Gloria Swanson, Greta Garbo, Fred Astaire, Vincente Minnelli, Louella Parsons, Hedda Hopper, Oscar Levant, Vernon Duke, and Marion Davies. The young couple, whose particular talents complimented each other’s, collaborated on many design commissions together and were sought out as an attractive addition to the Hollywood social scene.
In 1956, with Elizabeth, who he affectionately called “Beegle” (a nickname derived from the industry of the bee and the soaring poetry of the eagle), he opened a salon in the converted silent film studios of actress Norma Talmadge. The Tony Duquette Studios have since become legendary as the setting where the Duquettes entertained their celebrated and talented friends such as Arthur Rubenstein, Aldus Huxley, Jascha Heifitz and Greta Garbo. Duquette was a well-known painter, sculptor and jeweler. His talents as an artist were recognized throughout his life in a series of one-man museum exhibitions across the globe.

In 1951, Duquette was selected by the Louvre Museum in Paris to represent the decorative arts of the middle of the 20th century, the first American ever to have been so honored. During the 1960’s and 70’s the Duquettes continued to travel extensively, working in Austria, Ireland and France as well as New York, Dallas, San Francisco, South America and the Orient. Duquette created elegant interiors for Doris Duke, Norton Simon and J. Paul Getty, a castle in Ireland for Elizabeth Arden and a penthouse in the Hawaiian Islands. His interiors for commercial and public spaces are well known, notably the Hilton Hawaiian Village, Sheraton Universal Hotel, and sculptures and tapestries for the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Chicago as well as the Los Angeles Music Center and the University of California at Los Angeles. In his eighties he was creating unique fine jewelry for Tom Ford at Gucci.