Hutton Wilkinson

President & Creative Director

Hutton Wilkinson was born in Los Angeles, California and grew up in the architectural offices of his father and grandfather.  At eighteen, he had the opportunity to apprentice under the great American design icon, Tony Duquette.  Wilkinson worked for Duquette as a volunteer apprentice for two years and then as a paid assistant designer for three years before starting his own interior design firm.  While running his own design firm, Wilkinson continued his professional association with Tony Duquette, collaborating in partnership on a myriad of projects over the next twenty-five years.  Besides his own commissions, designing custom interiors for Alida Davison Rockefeller, Mr. and Mrs. Dennis Stanfill, a palace complex in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for Princes Tarfa Bin Abdul Aziz and executive offices for Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., Wilkinson with Duquette collaborated on interiors for Mr. and Mrs. Norton Simon, Doris Duke, Herb Alpert and Lani Hall and houses in Paris, France and Venice, Italy for Mr. and Mrs. John N. Rosekrans Jr..  Hutton’s most recent projects are a re-design of the former Sophia Loren ranch in Thousand Oaks, California as well as a six story Stanford White (c.1914) Town House, and a Penthouse apartment, for two very different clients, both projects being on 5th Avenue, in New York City.  Wilkinson is also completing a Town House apartment for a Japanese client in Century City, California as well as a contemporary house under construction for a young lady in Newport Beach, California. Working projects also include a Penthouse apartment in Bangkok along with a hotel project also in Bangkok.

In 1998, Wilkinson and Duquette, at the invitation of the Bergdorf Goodman store in Manhattan, launched a collection of one-of-a-kind, fine jewelry, which has been popularly accepted by both the public and the fashion press.  Since the success of this new enterprise, Wilkinson has devoted much of his time to the design of these unique jeweled creations under the “Tony Duquette” trademark.  These jewels have been used by such varied designers as Tom Ford, Gucci; Oscar de la Renta; Balmain; and Badgley Mischka to name a few of the many designers who have requested his one of a kind jewelry for Tony Duquette.  Wilkinson and his designs for home, table top and precious jewelry have appeared on HGTV, E!-Style, E! Entertainment, Extra and Full Frontal Fashion with American Vogue’s Andre Leon Talley.  His jewelry designs have been collected, seen and  worn on the red carpet by stars of stage, screen and television, for the Academy Awards, the Emmys and the Golden Globes by Raquel Welch, Joan Allen, Sela Ward, Patricia Heaton, Faye Dunaway, Sharon Stone, Liza Minnelli, Melissa Gilbert, Anastacia, Ellen Burstyn, Lauren Graham, Sarah Michelle Geller, Amber Valletta, Mandy Moore, Drew Barrymore, Hannah Simone and Reese Witherspoon, to name a few. 

Hutton’s first book “Tony Duquette” which he co-authored with Wendy Goodman, chronicling the great designer’s life and oeuvre, was published by Abrams New York in November 2007.  The first edition printing of 10,000 copies sold out before Abrams could ship it from their warehouse, the book being number one in its category on Amazon.com and one of the one hundred top selling books in the world during November and December 2007.  The book is now in its fifth printing. 

“More Is More, Tony Duquette” is Wilkinson’s second book which was released by Abrams in October 2009.  “More is More” is the companion volume to “Tony Duquette.”  This book explores American Designer Tony Duquette’s personal design philosophy and the artistic credo that inspired his fanciful artwork, sculptures, jewelry, gardens and interiors. 

Mr. Wilkinson’s book, “Tony Duquette, Hutton Wilkinson, Jewelry” was published in October 2011 and profiles the magnificent one-of-a-kind necklaces, brooches, bracelets, and rings Tony Duquette created for friends and clients such as the Duchess of Windsor, Liza Minnelli, Elsie de Wolfe, and Duquette’s wife, Elizabeth.  These pieces instantly became highly desirable collector’s items and are found in museums and private collections around the world.  Tony Duquette/Hutton Wilkinson Jewelry presents the most spectacular, jaw-dropping pieces by both Duquette & Wilkinson, whose belief that “more is more” is reflected in pieces that recall the splendors of the great courts of Renaissance kings, Chinese emperors, and maharajas.

“The Walk To Elsie’s” a novel of historic fiction with writing partner, Flynn Kuhnert.  This recent tome about the last ten years of Elsie de Wolfe’s life and the first ten years of Tony Duquette’s career was released in the Fall of 2015.  A rip roaring roller coaster ride beginning with the Nazi’s crossing the Maginot Line and taking over de Wolfe’s fabled Villa Trianon as their headquarters at Versailles to her discovery of Tony Duquette.  The tale continues with her star studded life in Hollywood, her subsequent return to France with Tony Duquette,  including his triumphant one man exhibition at the Louvre.  The tale ends with de Wolfe’s untimely death in 1951. 

In October 2018 Wilkinson’s latest book “Tony Duquette’s Dawnridge” also published by Abrams documents one of the most creatively designed private homes in America.   A visual history of the house with photographs from its inception to the present including current and historic photographs by Tim Street Porter paired with Wilkinson’s own recollections as well as stories told to him by Duquette himself.

Mr. Wilkinson is the president of The Anthony and Elizabeth Duquette Foundation for the Living Arts, a non-profit private foundation dedicated to presenting museum quality exhibitions of artistic, scientific and educational value and to purchasing, preserving and promoting the works of Tony Duquette.  He is also the president of The Elsie de Wolfe Foundation, a non-profit private foundation dedicated to furthering the decorative arts in America.  Mr. Wilkinson is a former member of the board of directors of “Save Venice Inc.” a non-profit American organization dedicated to preserving historic works of art and monuments in Venice, Italy, and DIFFA, Design Industry Foundation Fighting AIDS.

As the Creative Director and President of Tony Duquette Inc., Hutton continues to design one-of-a-kind jewelry, interiors and events. Additionally, he is a recognized public speaker and product designer for luxury brands. Some of his licensed products include textiles for Jim Thompson Thai Silk, custom lighting products for Remains Lighting, carpets for Patterson, Flynn and Martin, furniture and accessories for Maitland-Smith, upholstery for Pearson as well as tabletop accessories for Mottahedeh and interior decorations under the registered international trademark, “Tony Duquette” and Tony Duquette Inc.