In addition to honing his skills as a designer, Patrick Dragonette has accumulated other pearls of wisdom over the years.
“The heart of any good design business is repeat business. The majority of my clients have been [with me] a minimum of two projects,” says the founder of interior design studio and showroom Dragonette Limited. After having a presence in the La Cienega Design Quarter in West Hollywood, beginning in 1997, Dragonette went all-in on investing in the desert community, “which has welcomed us with open arms,” he says. Dragonette debuted a 5,000-square-foot El Paseo showroom in early 2020 shortly after he and his husband, Charles Tucker, relocated full-time to their Marrakesh Country Club home.
While Dragonette jokes that, “I know a little bit about a vast amount of things,” his ethos in reality reflects a balance of breadth and depth. As a respected authority on the work of William Haines, a Los Angeles furniture designer and decorator to the stars from the midcentury through the early 1970s, Dragonette’s expertise added rich context to the Sunnylands exhibition Variations to a Theme: William Haines at Sunnylands, on view at Sunnylands Center & Gardens through early June 2025. His relationship with the late icon continues to grow as he discovers treasure troves of Haines’ goods to breathe new life into — and clients who are eager to live with them.
In 2023, Dragonette purchased a collection of pieces from Haines’ 1963 re-imagining of a 1933 estate in Bel Air designed by the celebrated architect Paul R. Williams. Approximately a year later, he featured the Haines lot within a curated mix, including other standout works of art and design, via online design marketplace 1stDibs and at his booth at the Palm Springs Modernism Show & Sale. “It was a little hard to let go of it because I knew I would never see it again,” Dragonette says. Navigating this push-pull dynamic is familiar to many designers who form attachments to their collections, knowing that selling to new audiences is vital to keep legacies alive. As for the process of the never-ending hunt, that’s a fact of life for passionate practitioners such as Dragonette. “I’ve learned in all these years, if I like it, I have to trust my gut,” he says.
His El Paseo space serves as a laboratory of sorts, where the designer can play and experiment. Because he believes in a connection between fashion and interior design, he collaborated with Project Runway star Michael Costello a few years ago during Fashion Week El Paseo to transform his storefront windows into lively multidisciplinary displays. More recently, Dragonette began featuring the work of furniture designer Karl Springer as well as Lladró porcelain creations on the gallery floor. He reaps the benefits of operating the Dragonette Limited showroom and design studio as creatively reciprocal endeavors. “I feel very fortunate that I have the setup I have,” Dragonette says.
