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T H E G L A M , I N T E R T W I N E D W O R L D S O F TONY DUQUETTE AND ELSIE DE WOLFE WILL SOON MAKE THEIR TELEVISION DEBUT — WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM DAPPER SAVANT HUTTON WILKINSON, OF COURSE. 48 D uring his lifetime, L.A. set designer Tony Duquette was sought for his fantastical a r t w o r k , s c u l p t u r e , jewelry, gardens, film and stage sets, costumes, and interiors. He may have had no bigger fan than L.A. schoolboy Hutton Wilkinson, who obsessed about meeting Duquette after reading a magazine story about him and the defunct silent- film studio he turned into a house. It was 1968. "There was a picture of Tony sitting on the stage wearing the robes of a cardinal surrounded by abalone and mother-of-pearl and crystal chandeliers," says Wilkinson. "I said to my father, who was a very square architect, 'This is what I am interested in. This is what I want to do.' And he said, 'You're 100 percent crazy.'" Crazy like a fox, maybe. Wilkinson saved the article and spent the next four years looking for anyone who might make an introduction. One day, his art teacher put a note in his locker that Duquette was looking for volunteers at his studio. "I quit my job and school that same day and went to work for Tony for two years for free," says Wilkinson, who was then 17. Duquette was in his late 50s. The two eventually became business partners, working together for the next three decades in a remarkable collaboration and friendship that gave Wilkinson entrée to a lavish world of glamorous travel with royalty and celebrity-studded parties held at Duquette's magical Beverly Hills estate, Dawnridge. Duquette, who was getting up in years, turned over much of the work from the firm to Wilkinson, who by then had the "Duquette look" down pat. "It's all about layering," Wilkinson says. "You don't just put paint on the walls; you put fabric over the paint, then put a tapestry over that, and then you hang a perfect painting right in the middle. It's all over-decorated to the hilt." When Duquette died in 1999, Wilkinson took over as creative director and CEO of the firm, and he and his wife, Ruth, acquired Dawnridge, where they now live. Duquette and his protégé were almost inseparable. "We traveled everywhere together," says Wilkinson, "and we had so much fun, always laughing and laughing." It was during these many trips — in the car on the way to Tijuana, on a IT'S COMPLICATED BY REBECCA SHERMAN de WOLFE, DUQUETTE & HUTTON Elsie de Wolfe with Blu-Blu in front of her meuble designed by Tony Duquette, 1942.