Tony Duquette and Dawnridge

I just received my April issue of Harper's Bazaar yesterday, and all I can say is "Wow"! The cover is, in my opinion, one of the best fashion magazine covers that I have seen in a long time. I was so taken with the exotic setting in which Reese Witherspoon was photographed, and I realized upon closer inspection that the location was Tony Duquette's home "Dawnridge", located in Los Angeles.

Duquette, who died in 1999, was a true design Renaissance man. He was, during the course of his life, a set designer, interior decorator, artist, jewelry designer, and costume designer. Duquette got his start in Los Angeles during the 1930s, where he was fortunate enough to meet Elsie de Wolfe. de Wolfe would act as a mentor to Duquette, and she introduced him to all of the right people. Eventually, Duquette's client list grew to include J. Paul Getty and Elizabeth Arden.

In the late 1940s, Duquette and his wife built their home "Dawnridge". Duquette's love of the exotic and the eccentric is certainly evidenced by the interior decoration of the home. To me, the house is rather like an Orientalist fantasy mixed with a liberal sprinkling of the baroque. The house is now owned by Hutton Wilkinson, Duquette's business partner of many years. The drawing room, featured on the cover of Bazaar, was redecorated by Wilkinson in 2000 and is in the spirit of Duquette. The pictures below, however, were taken in the 1980s and show the house as Duquette had decorated it. If you would like to learn more about Duquette, you should visit his website (Wilkinson still runs the Duquette business) and view the wonderful photos of his work.









(Photos at top courtesy of Harper's Bazaar; photos at bottom courtesy of Tony Duquette)