Irish designer and illustrator Rory Hutton describes how Oscar Wilde has shaped his life and new exhibition …
Oscar Wilde has been a companion of mine for as long as I can remember. Not in the literal sense, of course, but in that curious way certain figures from history become almost like friends, shaping how we think, dress and create. He stands next to Madame de Pompadour in my imagination; together they are my unlikely aesthetic parents. Wilde makes me proud to be Irish. I often find myself turning to his words, wit and philosophy for inspiration. I was born a stone’s throw from his childhood home in Dublin, which I’ve always been unaccountably proud of, as though the air held a special magic.
Growing up in Ireland, history and storytelling are woven into everyday life. I imagine his mother, the nationalist poet ‘Speranza’, presiding over her famous salon at Merrion Square – attended by a curious mix of literary giants, Young Irelanders and visiting dignitaries – no doubt a huge influence on her ‘little pagan’.
As a child, I was mesmerised by photographs of Wilde dressed in full aesthetic regalia. A master of self-presentation, he was the quintessential aesthete. I knew immediately that was how I wanted to dress when I grew up. I longed for a velvet smoking jacket and opera pumps, a style I’ve never grown out of.
My degree show at Limerick School of Art and Design in 2009 was inspired by a line from one of Wilde’s love letters to Lord Alfred Douglas: “Your slim gilt soul walks between passion and poetry.” Doomed romance appealed to my 20-year-old self.
Eighteen years later, I find myself drawn back to Wilde with fresh eyes. The allure of dangerous love affairs has faded; today I would rather fight a duel with my wallpaper. But what has endured, indeed deepened, is my reverence for beauty and my determination to live surrounded by it.
Wilde understood the importance of the decorative arts at a time when they were dismissed as secondary. He put them centre stage as he built his personal image. In his celebrated essay The House Beautiful, he insists that beauty must be lived with, not hidden away. He mocked the absurdity of “good china stuck up in a cabinet” when it should be enjoyed. I think of this every time I set the table with Victorian majolica or 18th-century Sèvres plates. Like Wilde, I believe beauty belongs in daily life, not behind glass. That philosophy has become the foundation of my design practice: pattern should enliven the everyday.
Flowers too were part of his carefully curated image. There are Wildean calling cards. Sunflowers, lilies, carnations and chrysanthemums recur in his writings, his interiors and even the satires about his style. I can’t look at these flowers without thinking of Wilde and his circle. I imagine him walking down Piccadilly with a lily, as satirised by Gilbert and Sullivan in their 1881 operetta Patience, as I walk down that famous thoroughfare sans lily almost weekly. This year, I had the privilege to collaborate with British perfume house Penhaligon’s, designing scarves and packaging to mark their 155th anniversary. One of the most exciting revelations was learning that Wilde was one of the brand’s early customers and wore Hammam Bouquet, a heady, powdery scent of lavender, rose and sandalwood still offered by the brand, taking the imagination a step closer to the man himself. Of course, his life was marked not only by triumphs but by great tragedy. His courage to live authentically, despite the consequences, feels as urgent today as it did in the 1890s.
I’m marking the 125th anniversary of Wilde’s death with my new exhibition at Shapero Modern on London’s New Bond Street. Oscar Wilde 125: Rory Hutton Reimagines The House Beautiful features new linocuts, prints and silk scarves, alongside books and objects inspired by Wildean themes. Open on November 30, the day of his passing, it runs until the end of January. Wilde taught me that beauty is not a luxury but a necessity. He reminds me that art should never be an afterthought, but the very lens through which we live.
Need to know: See the exhibition at Shapero Modern, 94 Bond Street, London. @roryhuttonldn
