Take 10 With Designer Gary Hutton
Photo by Matthew Millman
Gary Hutton is known as the "Dean of West Coast Design." He grew up on his grandmother's apple ranch in Watsonville, studying studio art with iconic 20th-century artists Wayne Thiebaud, Manuel Neri, and Robert Arneson at UC Davis. Coming to the Bay Area, he completed his design degree at the California College of the Arts. This diverse background that bridges rural with urban and juxtaposes the obvious with the esoteric is what makes Gary's work unique. He has been delighting clients with his interiors since opening Gary Hutton Design in 1980, followed by his furniture collection in 1986.
CC: As a native Californian, how has the state’s topography shaped your aesthetics?
GH: Although I have traveled widely, I have always lived in California. Only Tuscany has tempted me to move. The sensuality of the northern Italian landscape reminds me of central California, where I grew up. Pre-Pandemic, when I would drive down to LA, I'd take the backroads. One of my favorites is Highway 25 that heads south of Hollister through ranching lands. It's hidden between Highway 5 to the east and 101 to the west. You feel like you are driving into the 1950s with no one on the road and only an isolated farmhouse here and there. In the hills, there are the most beautiful blue-green pine trees. California infuses a designer's work with a certain naturalism; you see that in Michael Taylor's interiors.
CC: What was it like growing up on an apple ranch?
GH: It was my maternal grandmother's ranch. She was a widow as her husband had died at 44 from a farming accident. When my parents were married, she deeded them two acres to build a family home, so I grew up on both properties. Every fall, we would harvest and sort the apples, and people would come to buy them who had known my grandmother since she was a child on her father's ranch. I made an Art Nouveau-style sale sign in the colors of the time; avocado green, mustard yellow with red outlines.
CC: How did your education in fine arts and sculpture influence your design work?
GH: I took my first art class at Cabrillo College, which opened my eyes to wanting a career in either art or interior design. My counselor at the time was not very enthusiastic about the design field, advising me to pursue art and that I should transfer to UC Berkley or Davis. My parents did not want me to go to Berkley because of the riots, so I happily ended up at Davis. Not only was it the Golden Age of art there, but it was also the center of artistic humor and playfulness. It gave me creative freedom different from the stratified education of other designers.
CC: Why did you make the transition from art to interior design?
GH: After graduating from college, I didn't have a job and ended up back in Watsonville for a year. Realizing I could not make a living from art, I moved to the Bay Area and completed my design degree at CCA. Before opening my own business, my experience in the trade ranged from being a sample person at Scalamandre to managing the CJ Welch showroom.
CC: Since you opened your firm in 1980, how have you seen design evolve?
GH: Interior design is more homogenous now as everything is so accessible through the internet. In the past, designers came up with more unique solutions to challenges. When LeavittWeaver worked on the late Ann Getty's Broadway living room, she wanted the walls upholstered with an antique green Chinese silk. Unfortunately, there was not enough of it, so they dismantled old black Coromandel screens to frame the fabric and make it into panels. Craig Leavitt and Stephen Weaver also used an unusual method to get the right colored stain for the room's doors. Taking old shellac music records, they pulverized them and mixed the pieces with isopropyl alcohol to match the Coromandel frames.
The Food Explorer: The True Adventures of the Globe-Trotting Botanist Who Transformed What America Eats by Daniel Stone
CC: A book that everyone should read?
GH: I have two:
The Food Explorer: The True Adventures of the Globe-Trotting Botanist Who Transformed What America Eats by Daniel Stone. It's a bio/ travel log about David Fairchild. He incorporated exotic plants into American agriculture, including pistachios, mangos, nectarines, dates, flowering cherries, bamboos, and soybeans.
Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History by Richard Thompson Ford. I just started this one, and it is totally cool. Fashion rules from ancient Greece to Silicon Valley!
CC: What’s your favorite cocktail?
GH: Martini, of course! Delightful for a warm afternoon/evening!
Gray Whale Gin
Splash of Dolin Blanc Vermouth
Twist of orange
CC: Who is your design icon?
GH: 1920's French furniture maker and interior designer Armand-Albert Rateau, who designed Jeanne Lanvin's apartment, we should talk.
CC: Who is your style icon?
GH: The American statement jeweler David Webb, now we're really talking! He did not design a lot of men's jewelry, but in 1971, he created the unisex Nail Ring, of which he said, "There is nothing delicate about life today. It is elegant and harsh at the same time. Today's jewelry, like today's fashions, must eliminate the frivolities of life." I had always coveted the ring. When my mother passed away in 2016 at the age of 97, I purchased one with my legacy.
CC: Favorite piece of clothing you own?
GH: A Dries Van Noten black embellished jacket, which I bought for my 70th birthday party, but was never able to have because of Lockdown!
Gary’s Dries Van Noten jacket
