Interior design duo Roman and Williams maintain a comprehensive style that blends the past and present to create original spaces.&nbsp;

At their downtown <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/nyc-boutiques-it-girl-fashion">Manhattan</a> studio, Roman and Williams&mdash;the team comprised of American <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/travel-living/hauvette-and-madani-bring-an-eclectic-mix-of-eras-to-interior-architecture">architectural designers</a> Stephen Alesch and Robin Standefer&mdash;are not interested in merely creating a space for others to exist. 
With roots in <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion-week/rick-owens-mens-spring-summer-2025-runway-show-review">Hollywood</a> as set designers, their passion for storytelling compels them to curate immersive worlds that will endure. Their holistic and imaginative approach to craftsmanship fosters beautiful, cohesive rooms that transform into complete sensorial experiences for visitors, including the classical whitewashed-brick New York restaurant Le Coucou, the contemporary and romantic <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/jacquemus-store-new-york-city-summer-2024">Soho</a> eatery La Mercerie (their own restaurant), and the Chicago Athletic Association, a former private sports club in the Gothic-Venetian style situated opposite Millennium Park. They also design private homes, such as the Montauk home of <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/art/eli-russell-linnetz-debut-exhibition-monuments">gallery</a> owner David Zwirner. 
In November, Roman and Williams will launch Guild Gallery at the Roman and Williams Guild, a store in Soho selling their own work and that of other artists around the world, which also houses La Mercerie. The Guild Gallery is a series of exhibitions representing a dozen <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/art/tefaf-the-european-fine-art-foundation-2024">artists</a>, steps away from the eatery. The gallery, featuring designers of objects and furniture, is intended to encourage an appreciation of form and function, and art and design. Designers Standefer and Alesch sat down with L&rsquo;OFFICIEL to discuss their transition from filmmaking to building and interior design, the DNA of their company (named after their maternal grandfathers), and their comprehensive artistic vision.&nbsp;

The La Mercerie dining room, photo by Robert Wright

L'OFFICIEL: Before becoming interior designers, you were both set designers, first on your own and then together. What memorable memories do you have of that time, when you worked on such <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/best-alain-delon-films">films</a> as Zoolander, Les Affranchis, and Gattaca?
STEPHEN ALESCH: We worked on quite a few films individually before beginning to work together on films. Working in film was a very fertile time for us. Our memories were of making things together&mdash;discovering and delving into so many different styles, periods, and settings; the diverse group of people we collaborated with, the various artisans&mdash;all while our relationship was blossoming. Every 14 weeks we were onto a wildly different project in which we&rsquo;d have to shift our focus to a completely different brief full of different ideas, and find a different way to tell a new story. We embraced a fictional world with no constraints, with variety and versatility, and the beauty of eclecticism.
ROBIN STANDEFER: All of this became foundational to our future work, and enabled us to shift from the Boom Boom Room to Estelle Manor with ease.

The Roman and Williams Guild shop, photo by Gentl and Hyers

L'O: Why did you transition from designing for fictional film worlds to the real world?
SA: Film allowed us to use our curiosity, our imaginations, our appetites. It allowed us to delve into craftsmanship. Film has always been more artisanal than the building arts. Artisans of a wide range of expertise would be brought in to fabricate architectural and interior elements that would bring a particular time period and narrative to life. On film sets, we were able to nurture and cultivate our shared love of historic techniques and artisanship to build entire worlds.
RS: We had already decided to start an architecture studio together, one that would bring these shared passions from film to interior design, when our first major project came our way. The director of one of our films felt that the house we had created for his movie set had more authenticity and integrity than his own home, and hired us to design his new residence.
When we entered the real world, we were the opposite of what was trending in interiors, which at the time was all white and Philippe Starck. Instead, we championed bringing <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/travel-living/hauvette-and-madani-bring-an-eclectic-mix-of-eras-to-interior-architecture">eclecticism</a> back into design.&nbsp;

The Le Coucou dining room and bar, photo by Ditte Isager

Film allowed us to use our curiosity, our imaginations, our appetites.

L'O: What&rsquo;s made the biggest impression on you as designers?&nbsp;
RS: We both were raised by fierce, countercultural, independent single mothers who told us we could do anything and be anyone we wanted. We were both always interested in art, in making things. I was making art while working in the gallery world, and Stephen, while working as an architect, also loved painting and drawing. But we also both loved making things on a big scale, which is how we got into film.
L'O: Did your families play a role in your professional life?
SA: We named our studio Roman and Williams after our maternal grandfathers, with the vision of creating something that would live beyond us. Our grandfathers made things. They were tradesmen, very hardworking, devoted to historic techniques, one in <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/van-cleef-arpels-pop-up-experience-watchmaking">jewelry</a> and the other a house <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/art/sharon-stone-visual-artist-los-angeles-art-gallery-exhibit">painter</a>. We loved the traditions in our families and looked back to look forward. It made our mothers kind of angry, in fact. They had tension with their working-class, old-world fathers, and had rebelled. The next generation always sees something the one before doesn&rsquo;t.
RS: Our mothers raised us to forge our own paths, far from the mainstream. We didn&rsquo;t follow the typical paths; we&rsquo;ve always been unclassifiable, in our early years individually, and today, in the life and studio that we&rsquo;ve built together. It&rsquo;s what brought us together. We&rsquo;ve thrown out the playbook time and time again to build a business on our own terms, one that defies categorization. We&rsquo;ve never fit into tidy lanes, or clear boxes.

The salon at Estelle Manor in Oxfordshire, photo by Jake Curtis

L'O: What is Roman and Williams&rsquo;s signature?
SA: First and foremost, our work is bound by an ethos, not a style. We had come together focusing on not one style, or technique. It was about collecting ideas and styles and bringing them together.
RS: Everything we do is built on a core set of principles and beliefs, whether we are designing a building, an interior, furniture, lighting, objects, our very own <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/travel-living/french-restaurants-nyc-dining-guide">restaurant</a>, or curating and championing the artists and artisans we represent.
SA: We&rsquo;re focused on creating an enveloping system for living and celebrating the traditions of high craft; a reverence for the history, materials, and techniques of the past with an ever-present focus on the now; reinventing them with a new language. We take &ldquo;high craft&rdquo; as our credo. It means a commitment to integrity in the process of manufacturing and materials, a commitment to the handmade at the highest level.
RS: We design things that are meant to be well-used and long-lasting, embracing the beauty of time and wear, and rejecting the preciousness of the untouchable. We hope that our buildings and objects will live well beyond us.

The studio and living room at David Zwirner’s home in Montauk, New York, photos by Nicole Frazen. Photo courtesy of Roman and Williams

L'O: How do you approach design?
RS &amp; SA: Gesamtkunstwerk, the [German] idea of creating a total work of art. We absolutely take a holistic, immersive approach to creating our spaces. Our aim is to create spaces and experiences that heighten the senses using layers of atmosphere and thus, designing every aspect and element that goes into the space. We go beyond choosing the pieces; we make the pieces, from the furniture to the silverware. It&rsquo;s about an artistic approach to the whole, from the terracotta tile for the facade of a building to creating a custom paint and working with the artisans and craftspeople to get it done. Our vision is a comprehensive one.
L'O: How do you immerse different styles together? Contemporary with decorative arts, Japanese, Swedish, and English styles...
RS &amp; SA: The industry tends to make two lanes. It separates contemporary from the historic, as if they are two different factions. We don&rsquo;t see it that way. We&rsquo;re very comfortable creating layers of atmosphere from different periods, different cultures. It&rsquo;s about interpreting and bringing all of this together.

The studio and living room at David Zwirner’s home in Montauk, New York, photo by Nicole Frazen. Photo courtesy of Roman and Williams

L'O: Your projects range from hospitality and private residences to your Guild Gallery and your design work. What do you particularly like about all these different disciplines?
RS &amp; SA: While we started as an architecture and interior design practice, it was always more about creating a system of living than simply designing a space. We have always been interested in the complete gesamtkunstwerk: in creating entire worlds, from the hand-blown glass at your table to the handcrafted brick that covers a building. It was only natural that we would evolve our business to match our vision for living&mdash;one that is rooted in a modern paradigm of craftsmanship and history. We are fascinated with the process of making, the process of high craft. We love the path, the history, the techniques&hellip; This is the through line of every part of our studio and business, from different types of architecture and interiors to our own original furniture and lighting designs, to the handcrafted works of our artists and artisans. Beyond our own designs, championing our artists and artisans at Roman and Williams Guild and Guild Gallery allows us to give a platform to those who endeavor to preserve historic traditions and techniques.

L&rsquo;O: Tell us about your current projects.
RS &amp; SA: Our most recently opened project is Eynsham Baths, the <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/beauty/best-spas-in-nyc-summer-luxury-facials">spa</a> for Estelle Manor, a <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/travel-living/sotheby-s-and-marriot-luxury-group-collaboration-redefine-luxury-in-art-and-travel-experi">hotel</a> and <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/travel-living/nyc-members-clubs">private club</a> in the Cotswolds, which we also designed, and is located on a historic site, established in the 18th century in Oxfordshire. It is the countryside counterpart to the private club Maison Estelle we designed in Mayfair in <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/art/what-to-see-and-do-at-freize-london-2024">London</a>. We did both the architectural and interior design of Estelle Manor, including the restoration of its historic Neo-Jacobean buildings and the development of 20 ground-up structures. It&rsquo;s a perfect example of collapsing past and present&mdash;honoring the legacy and craftsmanship of the property&rsquo;s historic design while creating a house that feels modern and vital. We recently added Guild Bar to our restaurant, La Mercerie&mdash;it&rsquo;s an intimate six-seat bar. We&rsquo;re currently working on the Hearst Hotel in a Julia Morgan building in San Francisco, and an incredible ground-up private residence on a hillside site outside of <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/travel-living/best-cocktail-bars-in-tokyo">Tokyo</a>. This November, we will present A Certain Slant of Light, a major off-site exhibition in a historic building in Tribeca that will explore the art and science of lighting, bringing together almost 100 of our own Roman and Williams Original Designs lights&mdash;from iconic fixtures like The <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/oscars-2024-all-the-winners-full-list">Oscar</a> to a slew of totally new lights&mdash;under one roof.&nbsp;
L'O: You&rsquo;ve designed a residence in <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/r13-spring-2019-nyfw-2018">Montauk</a>, a food market in Seoul, houses for <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/gwyneth-paltrow-young-best-90s-style">Gwyneth Paltrow</a>, the Hearst in San Francisco. Your work touches on all disciplines. Is this a way of challenging yourself and not getting bored?
RS &amp; SA: We&rsquo;re extremely curious. We have a huge appetite for making things. We never get bored.

How Roman and Williams Brings Its Architectural Vision To Life

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