Olivia, Creator of Romi Gold

From behind the counter at age ten, I rang up customers and wrapped gifts, learning that retail was really about ritual and detail. I’ll never forget Kim, one of my grandmother’s most trusted confidantes, who always asked me to press my finger down on the ribbon as she tied her signature bountiful bows. I later realized she didn’t need the help at all, she just wanted me to feel special. And I did. That feeling stayed with me: proof that retail, at its best, is theater, every gesture part of the show.

At home, my mother gave me my first “collection,” a jewelry box she found at an estate sale, brimming with oversized brooches, sparkling pendants, and earrings so extravagant they transformed dress-up into theater.

I’d pull the box out from under my bed, rearrange its contents, and play shopkeeper, pretending to sell my treasures to imaginary customers. They weren’t real jewels, but to me they were worth a million bucks, because they made me feel like a million bucks.

Those moments, generations of women building something extraordinary, and a little girl discovering the magic of adornment, are the roots of Romi Gold.

The story of Romi Gold is, at its heart, a story of women: three generations whose shops, collections, and creativity shaped my eye long before I knew what it meant to curate.

The name I carry isn’t only mine. It belonged to my great-grandmother first, then my grandmother, and now to me. My great grandmother, Nanny’s, own eye for beauty showed itself in her garden, where she knew every flower by name and loved nothing more than showing it off to anyone who’d walk through it with her.

I was born in New Orleans but grew up in Ocala, Florida, where weekends and afternoons were often spent in my grandmother Shannon Roth’s shop, Shannon Roth Collection, housed in the town’s original silent movie theater, built in 1923. The space was legendary, not just for its soaring 30-foot arched ceilings, original moldings, and dramatic proportions, but for what it contained: antiques, curiosities, and treasures sourced from around the world. Adjoining was my mother’s children’s boutique, Olivia & Company, a destination for baby and children’s clothing, milestone gifts, and imaginative details that made it unforgettable.

Together, the two shops became local landmarks. Together, they were my second home.