Bubbles of fashion sail over Paris, 1963

Here's a set of scans from Melvin Sokolsky's "Bubble" fashion photo series published in Harper's in 1963 -- beautiful, beautifully dressed women sailing over the streets of Paris inside giant plexi bubbles.

Bubble Series par Melvin Sokolsky pour Harper's magazine 1963 (via JWZ)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: Culture • Entertainment

More at Boing Boing

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

sigismund

maybe because they all volunteered for it… the worst prison is the one you deliberately accept. ;)
Anonymous

Fantastic image…..xv
David Carroll

Wow! That’s way better than a JetPack.
Anonymous

FANTASTIC!!
Nash Rambler

Am I the only one mildly disturbed by the lack of visable airholes in this thing? I’m hoping those two gawkers in the lower right are sharing my concern.
- Anonymous
  
  Well, based on this article http://www.arb.ca.gov/research/resnotes/notes/94-11.htm, humans consume about 550 liters of oxygen per day, which is just under 23 liters per hour. The bubbles appear to be about 2 meters in diameter, giving a volume of about 4200 liters. Dry air is about 20% oxygen (which, at least initially, is probably what those spheres are filled with), so there should be about 840 liters of oxygen (minus the volume taken up by the model) in the sphere. So, I would expect that the models should be able to stay in those spheres for a full work day without even coming close to exhausting their O2 supply. Of course, they may not know this, so they may end up spending significantly more oxygen frantically screaming and banging on the sphere.
franko

that dress in photo #2 is stunning to me. love these — i can haz desktop versions?
Janet Brennan Croft

Haut bubbles.
imag

Photoshop.
jja

It’s Boing! – the Miracle Plastic!
seyo

My kingdom for a time machine!
jfrancis

An article on the retouching

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3591566/Viewfinder-The-Bubble-on-the-Seine.html
Felton

I can’t help but picture it bouncing over the streets of Paris.
Jack

You know, this perfectly creates a physical representation of how fashion interacts with the world. Brilliant!
Yamara

Looks like Chi-Chian’s caught in a holografusion bubble again.
Rich Keller

Don’t open it. You’ll ruin the collectibility.
HowardsGrl

Pretty neat photos. But the ones on the ground remind me of hamster balls.
showcasejase

Man, The Flaming Lips are going to be pissed to see this!
Anonymous

Speaking of future transportation methods….http://bit.ly/HEKi
Anonymous

I always wondered why the ‘rovers’ from “The Prisoner” always had the skewed faces of the captured runaway pressed against the wall either in orgasim or agony. Now I know what it was, and why no one ever escaped “The Village”.