UO Talks to Aux Armes Etc.
Sam Wheeler and Dino Siampos are the duo behind Aux Armes Etc., the visual team responsible for the design of Save Fashion. They’re also best friends and band mates (in Soft). We caught up with them a few days before the opening to find out what’s in store (pun intended). 
How did you guys meet and start working together?
Sam: We both worked at Barneys in their visuals department for a number of years. Dino left before I did, and then it made sense to start doing our own thing.
Dino: We started this together about two and a half years ago. I was working at Uniqlo for a year while Sam was still at Barneys, but we both had freelance on the side. That was what sparked the whole thing—realizing that we could get by on our own. There are a lot of freelancers out there in the display world, but nothing was what we thought it needed. We decided to try it out, and it’s been working.
Sam: We play in a band called Soft together, and we’ve worked together in a lot different capacities, so we were comfortable working together on this.
Do you both have a background in design?
Sam: Just art school. Nothing really more than that.
What kind of displays do you do?
Dino: It’s mostly retail, but we do some set design and we’ve done some prop styling. We worked with the Citizens Band and did a lot of their set design. We’re interested in doing other things, but this has been our most consistent work. 
What have been the most interesting projects you’ve worked on?
Dino: Save Fashion has definitely been one of the most interesting projects so far, because we’ve gotten to design the whole space. The first one was interesting in positive and negative ways in dealing with the Port Authority. That was different than anything we’d had to deal with before, so it was a lot of problem solving. The limitations of it, the short time frame. It really made us come up with on-the-fly solutions, and ultimately it was really satisfying.
How is this round of Save Fashion different from the first?
Sam: It feels just a lot easier. The other one was building from a completely torn-up raw space—we were building all the racks, we were borrowing mannequins from Barneys that were all pieced together—which we ended up liking, and we just had to make things work. But this is already in a store, and it’s got beautiful windows and we don’t have to deal with the city and get approval on things. This time, everyone we work with is really helping, as opposed to throwing roadblocks.
What are some of the concepts or themes you’re working for for Save Fashion?
Sam: The last one was sort of more revolutionary. It was about throwing Molotov cocktails, and this one is more hippies on a commune. This is much more peaceful. There’s a little more black magic in it.
Dino: We made these sort-of prayer ropes that we’re using around the stores, with little bits of imagery from the campaign and the central display is build off of the idea of these visionary towers that we’ve seen people build out of junk. It’s much earthier and less violent. We wanted the last one to feel like it was all about tearing it down, and this one is more about loving it. A little more pyschedelic and warmer.
What is the coolest thing about your jobs?
Dino: Well, since we’re best friends, we’ll go out after work and we’re always coming up with ideas. And going into that barrel of ideas, pulling one out, and seeing it come to life, that’s my favorite part.
Sam: The absolute lack of repitition. Every day is different, and my biggest fear in life is to suddenly realize I’ve been bored for the last two years.
auxarmes.com
savefashion.com
