He walks over to a pretty, little, long-legged number and stops in his tracks. “If I may (elaborate) about the tables a little bit,” says Todd Hase, who looks more like a Calvin Klein model than a furniture designer leading a tour through his SoHo showroom.
“Talking about simple details,” he goes on, referring to the Michel coffee table with the great legs and slim proportions, “we tried to stretch the (design) as thin and delicate as possible but still giving customers a wood product, but giving more of a modern edge to it. . . . Once we created the form, we added the veneer marquetry to it. You see, each piece of the veneer is only about an inch wide to form this stripy pattern all the way across the surface of the table. . . . You don’t see any seam lines.
“And then we run the veneer vertically down the legs and sides to the floor. Most designers and manufacturers will run it horizontally to save on labor. This is entirely different. When you run it down vertically, there are no joint lines. Everything has to be completely matched.”
At the age of 30, Hase (pronounced Hahce) is one of the freshest faces in American furniture design and one of the most passionate about getting it just right.
Comfortable in his black armor (most often it’s a black jacket, black shirt, black pants) and slicked-back hair, Hase is part of a new era of interior designers, all of whom are young(ish), savvy about design and intent on making a name for themselves nationally–if not internationally.
Like Barbara Barry and Madeline Stuart of Los Angeles and Vicente Wolf of New York, Hase designs furniture, not just interiors. And it is that furniture that is giving him coast-to-coast acclaim.
From a design standpoint, Hase and the others are doing more than adding sofas and tables to the world. They are charting another direction for contemporary furniture in this country.
The look Hase and the others are developing is refined and mature–not hip, not trendy, not loud and rough around the edges, which is the end of the contemporary spectrum that seems to draw the most attention.
Take classic designs from history, strip away the excess, freshen up the lines, add a subtle quirk or two, and you have their take on modern furniture.
“The most common comment we get from people is that they see a lot of 1930s and ’40s French influences in our furniture. That is true to a certain extent, but actually it’s more strongly linked earlier to the Directoire period,” explains Hase, a Chicago-area native who moved to New York seven years ago. He fits in quite nicely with the design intelligentsia that occupies the stretch of Wooster Street in SoHo, where he hangs his shingle and works shoulder-to-shoulder with his wife, Amy. Knoll, Cappellini Modern Age (formerly Modern Age) and fashion designers Cynthia Rowley and Todd Oldham have showrooms here.
The elegant, minimal look of Directoire furniture emerged in response to the ornate furniture of the previous period, Hase goes on to explain, noting the subtle curve of an arm, chair back and leg that suddenly became visible in the lesser-embellished Directoire pieces. In the 1930s and ’40s, designers refined those shapes to a new spareness. And now, “we’re taking it a stronger step forward and making it even more modern,” Hase says.
Modern ideas
But Hase “modernizes” in surprising ways, and that is what distinguishes his brand of “current” design (he prefers the word to “contemporary”). He puts a current spin on Old World techniques and details.
For instance, Hase likes to use something as traditional as welting on his upholstery, not to add froufrou needlessly but to trace the sleek shape of his sofas and chairs with a line of cording that is so dire straight, it seems to hum.
He uses marquetry, not to create elaborate, decorative patterns in wood as craftsmen did centuries ago but to create long, crisp stripes that dance across the surface of his streamlined tables.
He erases the arms from an otherwise classic-looking settee. He has been known to cover a tiny ottoman in Italian cashmere that costs upwards of $300 a yard and is used for men’s high-end suits.
And he–a guy who makes his living designing standout furniture–believes those same pieces should be coy in a room.
“We want to create a more calming quality in furniture,” the designer says. “We want to create a perfect backdrop for whatever it is the person collects.”
All of those are modern ideas.
“I like to say it’s a 20th Century modern approach with a little bit of Hollywood glam,” says Holly Hunt, who sells the line in her designer showrooms in Chicago and Minneapolis.
Timeless appeal
But not everyone is comfortable using the words “modern” and “contemporary” in reference to Hase’s designs and those of others of his genre.
“They are really making traditional furniture more appealing by simplifying the design,” says Andrea Loukin, senior market editor of Interior Design magazine, and a fan of the more edgy contemporary looks.
But Loukin believes that this fusion of traditional and modern design has a certain staying power. “Something really, really modern can look old very quickly,” Loukin continues. “Whereas, if you take a classic piece and simplify it, it has a timeless appeal.”
The Todd Hase collection numbers approximately 100 pieces–including upholstery (sofas, chairs, fabric-covered ottomans); tables made from fancy woods like Makassar ebony, sycamore and figured anigre; and lamps, which were introduced last year.
Hase and Amy, who is both business manager and muse to her husband, name most of the pieces in the collection for family members and friends. All of them are made with exceptional quality (hand-tied springs on the upholstery; inlays done by hand on the tables; hand-rolled linen shades on the lamps), and their price tags reflect it. The average, full-size sofa starts at about $5,000. A cocktail table could go for $4,000, a lamp for $1,000.
During NeoCon, the huge contract furniture trade show that runs next month at Chicago’s Merchandise Mart, Hase will show at the Holly Hunt showroom in The Mart a new collection of upholstery with exposed wood frames; little three-legged drink tables; a series of taller, deeper bookcases made to accommodate art books; a series of wooden trays; a large decorative mirror with inlaid marquetry; several new lamps; and an expanded collection of fabrics.
From velvets to billiard cloth
“The fabrics are what’s really exciting and new for the company,” says Amy, who has an art history background and who edits all of her husband’s designs. (“If Amy doesn’t approve it, we don’t produce it,” Hase says.)
The fabrics, which are designed by Hase and can be purchased separately from his furniture, are lush. There are mohair velvets woven in Holland, silks from Asia, cotton boucles from Italy but milled in the U.S., and billiard cloths imported from Holland.
Yes, the billiard cloths are the feltlike fabrics that cover pool tables.
“It shows the furniture in a very tailored way,” Hase explains, noting the cloth’s durability. He will be showing it during NeoCon in eight colors, including smoky taupes and muted greens, his signature colors.
NeoCon brings Hase home again. Born and raised in south suburban Palos Heights, Hase was indoctrinated into the world of furniture design as a youth. He joined the family antiques business here in the Chicago area at the age of “13 or 14” when his parents would drop him off at auction houses with a certain budget and a mission to buy.
“They would come pick me up later and arrange for shipping the following day,” says the designer, laughing. “They totally trusted what I was buying.”
Hase went on to get a degree in interior design from the Harrington Institute of Interior Design in Chicago and later found his “passion” designing furniture.
He also found New York (“a great design outlet”) and Amy, who hails from the Hamptons on Long Island, N.Y. They launched Hase’s solo furniture design career and took the big plunge, opening up shop in SoHo about three years ago.
Success has shined on them. Sales are over the $1 million mark, with distribution of the Todd Hase collection through designer showrooms in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Minneapolis in addition to the SoHo space, which is open to both the trade and public. Hase expects gross sales to more than double this year.
Life is expanding in other ways for the couple, as well. They are expecting their first baby in September. And they are making themselves a home in the country, as a refuge from their city digs on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. They recently purchased 11 acres in Bridgehampton, on the eastern edge of Long Island, and are finishing renovation of two existing cottages on the property. They plan a “pavilionlike setting,” according to Hase, with the addition of a main house. Construction is set to begin soon.
“We are definitely fortunate,” the designer says. “All the time, we just have to pinch ourselves.”
