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Vice Blog

Bubblicious, Revisited

Olanic dress; Steve J & Yoni P body

Two years ago this month we published a fashion shoot called Bubblicious. It was a spicy little number with lots of cute ladies around and inside of colorful bubbles. Anytime you have half-naked girls inside behemoth bubbles in the forest, however, questions will be raised. So, we decided to catch up with Aldene Johnson, the stylist from the psychedelic shoot, and ask her what it was all about.

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Steve J & Yoni P swimsuit

Vice: So Aldene, tell me whose idea was it to go with the psychedelic bubbles?
Aldene: I got it in my head that I wanted to do a bubble shoot, so I started researching how to create big bubbles and I came across Samsam Bubbleman.

Samsam Bubbleman? Who the hell is he?
He owns the patent on making these huge bubbles with people inside. I was sold! He came up with this contraption and a bubble formula that allows him to make huge bubbles without popping them.

Steve J & Yoni P swimsuit

Wow. How does one create such large bubbles, and how did you get them to come out so clearly in the pictures? He'd create the bubbles with a hula hoop. After a few seconds they would pop, but they would stay in complete bubble form long enough to take a photo. I don't think he had ever had a semi-naked girl in a bubble before.

I bet. Can he manipulate the size/shape of the bubbles?
Well, the size is the circumference of a hula hoop.

And how tall?
He can reach. So just over a person's head.

Modernist top, Calvin Klein underwear

Vivien Westwood Anglomania shirt, Bernard Chandran shorts

Did the clothes reflect the concept of the shoot? As in, did you have to select clothes specifically for this shoot, with the bubbles in mind?
Well, when I think of bubbles, I think of light blue and the sky, so I used that as a color pallet, and just used pieces that made me think of bubbles.

ONETrueSaxon top, Firetrap jeans, Onitsuka Tiger shoes

Howcome the last picture is black and white, and of a guy?
I know, a little random, but we liked it. None of the other images of him really worked and Harley [Weir, the photographer who shot this] and I both liked the shot. It's a good bubble.

Any funny anecdotes about this shoot that the pictures don't tell?
Well, Samsam didn't know where to look when he had to put Ellie in the bubble where she's only wearing knickers and a cloud necklace. Also, when the two were in the bubble together, hugging semi-naked.

Was he embarrassed or flattered, do you think?
Definitely embarrassed.

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