Le Coucou, Lafayette, The Ace Hotel, The Boom Boom Room, The Freehand, The Dutch, The Standard Grill: this is the list of famous spaces designed by Roman and Williams. And those are just the ones in New York City. 

 

Robin Standefer (the female half of this successful husband-and-wife-duo that make up Roman and Williams) always knew she’d do something creative. A product of downtown New York bohemia during the late ‘70s, she grew up painting by day and gallery hopping by night. “The gritty street life and glamour of those days has shaped my aesthetic,” she says. Her richly-textured work, universally celebrated for the way it artfully blends high and low, has kick-started countless trends (including the once-edgy-now-ubiquitous exposed brick wall). However, what really sets Roman and Williams apart is its ability to craft intimate emotion: people don’t just want to visit their spaces for dinner once in a while, they want to move in and call them home.

Standefer met her husband, Stephen Alesch, back in the ‘90s working on film sets in L.A. and it was there that the duo laid the foundations for their future company. While filming Duplex, an enamored Ben Stiller asked if they would consider designing his new home; Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Hudson soon followed. With high profile clients lining up, the couple officially opened Roman and Williams (named after their maternal grandparents) in 2002. Fast forward sixteen years and they live an idyllic—if busy—life. Weeks are spent at the office in Manhattan; weekends are escapes to their “sea ranch” in Montauk to soak up nature and get inspired. “We are like farmers working together day and night” says Standefer, “Our relationship started like that, so we couldn't imagine it any other way.” 

In the most fundamental sense, I make things.  Whether it be a building, a restaurant, a hotel or a collection of furniture, we are devoted to creating spaces that are engaging and alive.  Just this year, we launched the Roman and Williams Guild and La Mercerie café. So beyond interior design and architecture I now own a restaurant and shop.  

 

A creator.

 

How dynamic and challenging it is. Exploring how to bring spaces to life that have a powerful narrative and engage the audience.  Between Roman and Williams and the Guild we have an opportunity to travel the world constantly. 

 

The constant struggle between creative authorship and economics.

 

Learn to be your own muse. Spend as much time in the garden as possible.

 

I always answer this the same way: I think Mohammed Ali said it best, “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee”.

 

Polished, personal, feminine and always black. I have a black Alaïa dress on rotation.

 

Determination, creativity and a fierce point of view.

 

Designing the British Galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

 

Finding freedom and peace of mind, and the confidence to know what to do with it.

Upload a picture of your room, swipe between a range of design filters (a la Instagram), select your favorite and—cha-ching—it’s yours at the touch of a button. Or it will be when the home décor app Hutch releases its new feature in a few months’ time. Beatrice Fischel-Bock and her cofounders are on a mission to bring the “antiquated” multibillion dollar interiors industry into the future. "There are still furniture companies that take P.O. orders over fax—I don’t even know what a fax looks like!” says the 27-year-old. 

 

Like Facebook, Hutch began in the humble dorm room: Fischel-Bock and her friends started making extra money doing up their friends’ college apartments. Sensing an opportunity, the trio cobbled together a business plan and cold-called the TV show Shark Tank (they won the funding but chose not to accept it). By the time they graduated in 2012, Hutch (then known as ZOOM Interiors) was already up and running. “I’m good at executing” says Fischel-Bock. Yet, she’s the first to admit much of her success has depended upon the mentorship of Tinder co-founder Sean Rad. And so her mission has thus grown to give others a seat at the table. She says, “my mentor has brought me into the boys club, now my job is to bring other women in.” 

I’m pretty much obsessed with animals, so I thought I was going to be a vet until I saw my dog after surgery and realized there was blood involved. 

 

My favorite part of the job is the team! There is nothing better than a day where we figure something out or finish a big sprint. 

 

Dealing with the drama that inevitably occurs when you have a group of millennials working on something quite intense. 

 

Do things that scare you. I am a very shy person so most things scare me, especially in my position leading teams and publicly speaking. Although it’s uncomfortable at the time, you learn that you can do anything and that everything gets easier once you try it.

 

Dive in and go for it. Don’t wait for funding, don’t wait for the right mentor. Just start. Your path will begin to reveal itself naturally. I always tell people looking to start a business to print some business cards and buy a domain. Total cost: under $100. 

 

A little boho, trendy and a touch of grunge.

 

People think it is A LOT more glamorous than it actually is. As a society, we only share our best selves. There’s a lot more going on behind the scenes. 

 

Strategic, organized, focused. 

 

Keeping sane though all the madness!

It’s one thing to have talent; it’s another to be able to recognize it in others—and then amplify it. “I’ve tried to tell people that design is a way of looking at the world” says the writer Pilar Viladas (a name you’d recognize if you’ve ever picked up an issue of T Magazine or Architectural Digest or Town & Country). And she would know: the veteran journalist has made an entire career through the art of seeing, which is different from just looking. 

 

Viladas, now 64, remembers wanting to share “cool things” with the world as a child, but the naturally-gifted writer developed the eagle eye of an editor while at Harvard. A bedrock of expertise gleaned through Art History classes held in museums and more—underpinned by an encyclopedic knowledge of design and a critical approach—is what arms Viladas’ writing a unique ability to cut through the noise. (Because, as we know, not everything makes for a great story.)  

 

Still, in the age of social media, where everyone has an opinion (so long as it can be expressed in 140 characters or less), her point of view is more relevant—and more respected—than ever. Insiders look to her as a bellwether; one who has the power to launch careers and trends simply by writing about them. Of course, Viladas doesn’t see things that way. “I’ve never felt like a “trend-spotter”, I just find things that are interesting.”