From now through the new year in New York, thousands of people will crane their necks and pack in shoulder to shoulder to see the over-the-top holiday window displays. One of the most storied of these is Madison Avenue’s Barneys New York, which this year put its windows in the hands of two Texas natives who hail from one of Austin’s most prominent artistic families, twin brothers Nikolai and Simon Haas. The result: Haas for the Holidays, a whimsical, surreal psychedelic animal- and plant-inspired window world that uses animation and sculpture to celebrate diversity and positivity. The Barneys collaboration—which also includes store activations, merchandise, and a social giving campaign (#haasrules)—provides one of the biggest stages yet for the internationally known brothers, highly sought-after artists who count Lady Gaga and Tobey Maguire among their fans.

“We started making work together when we were born,” says Nikolai, who goes by Niki. “Our aesthetic has a lot to do with childhood and going back to your true self and who you are and what’s influenced you.” The brothers enjoyed an idyllic and art-filled childhood in Austin’s charming historic Clarksville neighborhood before moving to LA, where they live now. The home they shared with their artist parents, Berthold and Emily (who is also an opera singer), and their older brother, actor Lukas Haas, was filled with music, a rotating cast of eccentric characters, interesting collections, and art-making in many forms, from sculpture to masonry. We caught up with Niki, who became a dad just last week to baby boy Fox Haas, to get a glimpse inside their playful, creative world.

Niki shared all the scoop for how they scored this big gig. "A woman we work with helps connect brands with artists. She put us in touch with Barneys Creative Director Matthew Mazzucca, who had been keeping an eye on our work. We all got into a room together in New York, and we hit it off," he says. "Initially we were just going to do the windows and that was it, but when Simon and I get into a project, we just come up with more and more ideas. We came up with a lot of other ideas for inside the store, like interactive in-store experiences and limited-edition merch. Sometimes, the client is like, ‘Whoa, I don’t want to do all of this,’ but Barneys said, ‘Yes, let’s do everything.’"
Photography by Tom Sibley
"Across the windows is the story of the beginning of time to our future. It’s our interpretation of Earth through the ages, and we explored four themes of time passing—Primordial before humans or animals, Utopia before Adam and Eve, Millennium, our present, and then a vision of the future, titled Mushroom Singularity," Niki says. "It’s what we hope our future looks like when there is singularity, a resolution."
Photography by Tom Sibley
The brothers treated the project like an Aesop’s Fable where there is a message behind everything in the installation. "As big an important as we think we are, it’s not in our hands,” Niki says. "It’s also meant to be light and fun, but if you want to read deeper into it, you can."
Photography by Tom Sibley
Their creative process began with the guys meditating on what the holidays meant to them. "For us, holiday is about family, reflecting and being with the people you care about. The true spirit of the holidays is taking care of each other, not taking each other for granted, so we created this aesthetic that supported those ideas. That became the foundation for “Haas Rules” that are carried throughout the displays."
Photography by Tom Sibley
The "Haas Rules" are catchy sayings that run throughout the store, like “The Future is Your Present”—which they meant to be a reminder about taking care of the planet in order to pass it along to the next generation—and “Can’t Have Rainbows Without Rain.”
Photography by Tom Sibley
At the Barneys Downtown, the Haas Rule is “Snake Love, Not War,” which features a large snake weaving through the two windows.
Photography by Tom Sibley
"We are from Texas, so for us, Christmas has never meant reindeer or snow," Niki says. "It was sometimes 80 degrees in Austin on Christmas!" He reflects on his childhood holidays in Austin. “Our brother [Lukas] was a child actor, so he was always gone. He left Austin for good when he was 16 and we were just 8, so I remember Christmas as being the time when we got to have our brother back in Austin. He would drive us around and show us new things, and my parents would be cooking, so happy to have him home,” he says. “And we loved going to the Zilker Park tree lighting and the Trail of Lights. Do they still do the Yule Log? This huge log would burn on a fire for weeks, and we would go watch. It was awesome.”
Photography by Tom Sibley
The snake pattern runs across the stairs in the middle of the store. “This is all meant to be fun for adults and kids, which is the best timing since I just had my son is eight days ago. It’s serendipitous because I was just designing onesies and kids toys for this collection,” he says. “I’ve wanted to be a dad for a long time, so it’s really beautiful. I have to go to a meeting right now, which is hard because I want to be back at home with him. His name is Fox Haas, no middle name.”
Photography by Tom Sibley
"We use a lot of dumb puns in our work, like 'Snake Love, Not War' because art can be taken too seriously. It’s always like, “Don’t touch the art,” making it seem in a sense the art is more important the person beholding it, but it’s really the opposite that is true," Niki says.
Photography by Tom Sibley
Niki draws a lot of cartoons, and Simon often draws with colors and patterns. They created what the Barneys team is calling the Haas Bible, 1,800 pages of drawings specifically for this project. Niki says: “It’s fun to generate a lot of ideas and then cherry-pick the best ones that all support the theme, which is these broad ideas of love and positivity.”
Photography by Tom Sibley
“There is a lot of huffing and puffing and not a lot of humility right now. The world doesn’t exactly feel like it’s in a merry holiday state at the moment,” Niki says. “This is the biggest stage we have ever been given, with everyone who walks down Madison Avenue in New York seeing it, so we just wanted to say something, not to polarize in any way, but just to say that we live on an awesome planet, so let’s all love each other!”
Photography by Tom Sibley

 

The Haas Brothers will be showing rugs and miniatures at the Lora Reynolds Gallery in Austin in January. They are currently fabricating a museum show for The Bass in Miami, which will open a year from now at Art Basel. “We are doing more work in Texas, which we are really excited about,” Niki says. “There’s nothing better than coming home to Texas.”