The 10 Most Inspiring Young Artists In NYC Right Now

Sam Wheeler and Constantino (Dino) Siampos met working on window displays for Barneys, toured together as part of the band Soft for a few years, and then "we had to grow up," says Wheeler. They founded Aux Armes, their company that creates imaginative window and interior displays, and soon they had a roster of high-end clients: Hermès, Rosa Cha, DVF, Jill Stuart, Steven Alan, Vince, Valentino, Rachel Antonoff, Madewell, and, of course, Barneys New York. (Remember those Men's Vogue and orange string sculptures?) The duo does a lot in the Brooklyn workshop they share with Square Design and Chavez Design, but they spend a good amount of time tweaking as they install their work behind that shiny street-front glass.

"Each window can't offer the same thing," says Siampos. "We often run across the street to look at the larger perspective and make sure that our story has been carried through properly." Do they have a signature? "There isn't a look, but there is a sense of complexity in the idea," says Wheeler. "There have to be multiple layers of reference." Next up: This summer Wheeler and Siampos, along with Portable TV, will launch a men's lifestyle service called Svbscription. (The kinks aren't all worked out yet, but the general idea is that for $100/month, the crew will mail you packages full of hand-selected products.) Stay tuned.

Click through to see more of Aux Armes' work.

Photographed by Tom Hines.