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Tony Duquette, the splendid jewelry, furniture, interiors and Hollywood set designer whose personal aphorism was "more is more," died in 1999. But his over-the-top naturalistic style endures in the new restricted-edition Tony Duquette for Coach collection, which is set to go on sale later this week.</p><p> The 20-part collection is priced from $48 to $498 and includes a multicolored Duchess bib necklace modeled after a broken he designed for the Duchess of Windsor, jeweled clutch bags, enamel cuffs, cabochon rings and ladybug charge pins, all inspired by Duquette's archives, which were open to the Coach designers.</p><p> Duquette's patron 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 illustrious, 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 obligation and design partner of 30 years, Hutton Wilkinson. Wilkinson has carried on the ritual so beautifully, designing his own one-of-a-kind fine jewelry pieces sold at specialty stores under the Duquette name, that it's no goggle the baroque-natural aesthetic continues to be a source of inspiration for designers such as Tom Ford, Michael Kors and Trainer creative director Reed Krakoff.</p><p> "Duquette defines what it means to be over the top. He lived and created with a suspect of wit, irreverence and abandon I admire," Krakoff is quoted as saying in Wilkinson's modern book, "Tony Duquette/Hutton Wilkinson Jewelry" (Abrams, $50). Krakoff has been collecting Duquette's travail for years, and he proposed the idea for the Coach collection when he met Wilkinson at a words signing in the Hamptons for Wilkinson's 2009 title, "More Is More: Tony Duquette."</p><p> "Tony Duquette/Hutton Wilkinson" is a lavishly illustrated marvel 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 laws's introduction, Glenda Bailey, editor in chief of Harpers Bazaar, writes, "Hutton has such an astounding imagination that everything he touches blossoms, quite literally in the case of his jewelry; necklaces expand 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 superannuated history and power of the unusual precious and semi-precious materials acclimated to in his fine jewelry, highlighting his Pond Scum necklace made of malachite stalactite slices treated to look like pools of still drinking-water, a malachite and pearl insect brooch and a blister pearl collar that looks like the most marvellous necklace of clam shells.</p><p> The Tony Duquette for Train collection will be available at select Coach stores beginning Friday.
Source: Kansas City Star