Thank you for having us in your atelier. To get things started, can you tell us who is Alice Damiens?

I’m Alice Damiens, a 33-year-old French wood sculptor. What guides me is deeply connected to emotions and to the way I experience the world. I feel things very strongly and am quite influenced by the energies around me. Because of that, what truly guides me in my daily life is a mix of instinct and a personal sense of beauty, what I find beautiful. I need to feel things fully, through smell, sight, and touch. That’s also why I’m so drawn to working with natural materials. I naturally tend to seek beauty in everything, in forms, in materials, in everyday moments. To me, beauty is everywhere and essential to life. It’s this instinct, this sense of beauty and imagination, that drives me and pushes me to create things and bring them to life.

So who is Romie? Where does the name has it’s origin?

When I started building my own brand, I felt uneasy about putting my name on my pieces, similar to how my dad signed his work with ‘Rémi Damiens’. So, I began using ‘Romie’ on my finished items. Romie is like a nickname I created for myself since there aren’t many natural nicknames for Alice. It became a personal identifier that helped me create some distance from my personal life. I was drawn to it because it felt harmonious, both soft and lively. Later, I added ‘Objetti’ to emphasise that my creations aren't limited to just one type of product but include various objects, also giving it an Italian flavour, even though it's a made-up word. I invented it because it sounded good and was a nod to Italo-disco culture. Including ‘Objetti’ expanded the brand’s universe beyond jewellery, allowing it to encompass sculptures, objects, design, and more. I loved the idea of a flexible, open-ended identity that isn’t confined to a single category. Additionally, ‘Romie’ has a beautiful aesthetic; its letter spacing, when using the right font, creates a visually appealing whole, which was very important to me.

You worked in fashion as a stylist. How was the crossover to what you’re doing now?

My first introduction to the professional world was in fashion. After graduating from my fashion design studies in Paris, where I focused on fabric knowledge and the design of accessories such as handbags, jewellery and shoes, I started working at Corthay, a footwear brand, where I worked for two years as a designer of bespoke men’s shoes, think pink crocodile loafers (laughs). There was almost no limit to what could be made. After a brief hiatus in Amiens, designing jewellery, I returned to Paris, as I felt my life was still in the city. I started working for Bensimon as a visual merchandiser, but after a couple of years I missed the creative aspect of that role. The more time I spent with the collection, the more I felt I would love to start designing again.

While still working as a visual merchandiser, I had the opportunity to create a capsule collection combining accessories and clothing, which was very well received. This led me to change roles and join the design team, where my focus was on accessories and sneakers for a couple of seasons. Eventually, I became head of design when the role became vacant, and I put my heart and soul into creating the best collection possible for four seasons.

After working seven years at Bensimon, I couldn’t find the joy and enthusiasm I had at the start of my career, so I felt it was time to change paths. I realised this in a vivid nightmare, seeing myself at 40, still in the same position, nothing having changed, doing the same work, and realising that I had missed the opportunity to learn and carry on my father’s craft, something I could have started ten years earlier. This was the wake-up call I needed, and I realised I was not willing to live that version of life any more. I finished my last collection with full attention, resigned, and returned to a more personal practice that my dad had taught me. I don’t like to think in boxes, and I don’t like to be restricted in my creativity. I like to create whatever feels right, when I like to, which I can do as I wish with Romie Objetti. I can fully focus on creating my own vision without compromise, making sculptural objects, jewellery, and custom projects, not limited to those, and creating tangible pieces that let me keep creative control and work at a human scale.

Who would you love to meet that you haven’t met yet?

I cannot just name one. There are so many people for different reasons. I would have loved to have organised a large dinner and invited them to a table I had set. For example, Brancusi for his humility and quiet mastery, Barbara Hepworth for her fearless large-scale carving, and Elsa Peretti for the powerful feminine forms she created. Outside art, Simone Veil and Ruth Bader Ginsburg are courageous and impactful women who changed the world, and I would have loved to have met and listened to them.

Any hidden talents we should know about?

I’d say my spatial vision. I can take any space and create a vision that turns it into a coherent whole. I love to create a complete vision, combining items in space with the right lighting to make everything come together, rather than leaving individual pieces in a space that don’t connect. This served me well when I was working as a visual merchandiser, as I did it instinctively, without even realising it. Sometimes I’ll even guide clients with a specific request away from a reference they have, if the architecture calls for a different proportion or placement. I love to tell stories with and within a space, just as I want to keep telling the story of Romie.

And I see myself as a pretty good cook when improvising; I like intuitive cooking, not following strict recipes. Whenever I have the time, I open the fridge door and let imagination and taste form a good meal.