The Woman in the Pink Truck

Eccentric Wiz With Zany Pets is a True Texas Original With a Story to Tell

By Jane Rozelle // Nov 30, 2016

Photography Rhi Lee

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Michelle Nussbaumer and her husband Bernard moved to Rome for his film career.

Per Hutton Wilkinson, who penned the foreword in Michelle Nussbaumer’s premier tome, Wanderlust: Interiors that Bring the World Home (Rizzoli), the eccentric, well-traveled interior designer is “a dream catcher, a three-dimensional storyteller, a seductive sorceress whose enchanted vision must be obeyed.”

Few could argue with such a depiction, as Nussbaumer — a self-proclaimed citizen of the world — seems to magically transport herself into the chicest scenarios all over the globe. At one moment she may be ensconced in her family’s Gstaad chalet, then poof, hosting a dinner party at her San Miguel estate.

At home in Dallas, she could be zipping around town in her custom pink ikat truck or cozying up in her Wilson McClure-designed home, surrounded by a zany menagerie of pets. During this particular pause in town, Nussbaumer planted her traveling shoes at Forty Five Ten for a book-signing soirée — and one of the store’s final fêtes before it moved to new digs downtown.

Guests pored over the tales of Nussbaumer’s travels abroad and photographs of her awe-inspiring, international design projects. Whether she is unearthing treasures at markets in Fez or scouring the Marché aux Puces flea market in Paris, one thing is certain: To step into Nussbaumer’s stylish, eccentric world is to enter a scene straight out of Auntie Mame — leopard-print chaises, wildly fashionable ensembles, and martinis included.

Nussbaumer’s wanderlusters: Forty Five Ten’s Brian Bolke; Will Kolb, Teresa Person, Amy Malin, Tere Stool, Alexis Stoll, Jean-Patrick Bonny, Shannon Miner, Judy Aldridge, Mackenzie Brittingham, James Campbell, John Phifer Marrs, Andrew Gonzales, and Ashley Cole.