Category : Residents' news
Resident portraits - Charlotte Font and Charlotte Romani
Soapmakers Charlotte Font and Charlotte Romani founded the FONT&ROMANI workshop in 2022 and joined the Ateliers de Paris in 2024.
Heirs to ancestral Parisian know-how, the FONT&ROMANI atelier reinvents the Savonnerie weaving technique, turning wool velvet into sculpted frescoes, with color playing the leading role.
Charlotte Font and Charlotte Romani are lissières en Savonnerie. They met in 2017 when they joined the apprenticeship program at Mobilier National. After 5 years spent weaving shoulder-to-shoulder at the institution, they created the FONT&ROMANI workshop dedicated to the Savonnerie weaving technique in 2022 in Paris.
The FONT&ROMANI atelier seizes on this rare Parisian savoir-faire, handed down since the XVIIᵉ century, to extend its gestures with boldness and poetry. In their workshop, on their imposing haute-lisse loom, they knot and weave textile pieces in French wool velvet with four hands, sculpting them in bas-relief style.
Color, the constant starting point for their creations, has naturally led them to monochrome. From this hue, exalted by wool velvet, come myths and ancient tales, their main source of inspiration.
Their desire to work with French wool is a real commitment. That's why, from the outset of their project, they have built up trusting relationships with local players such as the Terrade spinning mill and the Teinture Aubusson Lab dyeing workshop, and are now part of the Oh my Laine! program initiated by the Lainamac association.
The FONT&ROMANI workshop creates textile pieces for collectors and galleries, and offers its made-to-measure expertise to luxury professionals (fashion and decoration).
Their unique approach to this technique won them the Prix de la Jeune Création Métiers d'Art in 2023 and enabled them to exhibit at the Salon International du Patrimoine Culturel. The FONT&ROMANI workshop also won first prize in the Label Fabriqué à Paris 2024 in the Home Universe category, and is a Rémy Cointreau Foundation prizewinner.
You can discover their work through the exhibition Fils et Filiations until May 28, at the Biennale Révélations from May 21 to 25, and at Paris Design Week in September, in the Oh my laine! showroom.
