The Furniture Designer to the Stars: Hollywood Glamour Comes to Texas With Art Deco Flair

Anne Hauck Art Deco, the latest furniture collection to land at George Cameron Nash, recalls an era when glamour reigned in Hollywood. Hauck, a renowned collector of Art Deco antiques and the brain behind her namesake line, is famous for her celeb-frequented Melrose Avenue boutique in L.A.

Martin Scorsese hand-picked pieces from Hauck’s shop for the set of his Oscar–winning movie The Aviator, and Gucci, Saint Laurent and Dolce & Gabbana have all called on her for furniture to use in ads and commercials.

The Nash-Hauck connection sparked earlier last year, while Nash was window-shopping in L.A. Lured inside by the gleam of polished veneer, Nash drooled over the store’s curvaceous furniture, inlaid and veneered in exotic Macassar, rosewood, ivory and gold leaf.

“I’m attracted to beautiful veneer like a bear is to honey,” Nash says. “It was the sexiest furniture I’d ever seen.”

Soon afterwards, Nash and Hauck inked an agreement to bring her collection to his Dallas Design District showroom, where eight designs are currently carried, including chairs, coffee tables, consoles and lighting. “She’s the real deal,” says Nash of Hauck, who oversees production of her collection in the U.S. and in Germany, where the intricate inlays and veneers are made. “I put her in the same league as Michael Taylor and Christian Liaigre. They’re all purists.”

Born in Germany, Hauck started collecting antique French Art Deco pieces in the ’70s at age 21. She later opened two stores there, showcasing original designs by the masters of the era, Jules Leleu, Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, Jean Dunand, Josef Hoffmann, Louis Süe and André Mare (Süe et Mare), Maurice Dufrêne and Mercier Frères — all procured from such lofty places as mayoral offices in Paris and Lyon and the villas of famous playwrights and conductors. After relocating to Los Angeles in 1998, Hauck launched her own line in 2003, inspired by the best of French Art Deco.

While she is a purist at heart, Hauck is quick to remind that she doesn’t copy furniture. “It has to be beautiful,” she says, “but it also has to be functional. Antique pieces are not always functional.”

Still, that glittering era maintains its hold over her: “Art Deco,” she says, “is my life.”

To the trade at George Cameron Nash, Dallas Design District, 1025 N. Stemmons Freeway, Suite 150, 214.744.1544.