Photographer Melvin Sokolsky captured the now legendary "Bubble" series in 1963 in Paris, for Harper's Bazaar. The only photo retouching involved was to remove traces of an 1/8th inch cable which held the sphere.
This photo, "Bubble Seine", was recently named as the most iconic image in 100 years of fashion by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
The series is widely credited with starting a trend of high-concept, artistic fashion shoots which push boundaries.
The photos start with models suspended over river Seine, then moves into the city streets, evoking adventurous, surreal imagery.
The dreamlike scene of a floating bubble was inspired by The Garden of Earthly Delights, a triptych by the early Netherlandish painter Hieronymus Bosch.
The sphere, inside which models displayed high-end fashion designs, was made of plexiglass and aircraft aluminum, and took ten days to manufacture.
Here Simone D'Aillencourt, one of Sokolsky's models of choice, seemingly floats ethereally among trees.
Some images are framed so that the cable holding the sphere is outside the photo, and Sokolsky maintains that with enough distance and a little back light, even a direct shot of the cable would not necessarily be visible.
Some of the clothes, especially the shoes, were damaged when the bubble was lowered too close to the water, which could have contributed to the series eventually moving over dry land.
Several of the frames feature bystanders looking in awe at the strange sight of the hovering orb, which Sokolsky worked into strong compositions.
One frame in the series is set against the other fashion capital - New York.
Here photographer Melvin Sokolsky, model Simone D'Aillencourt, and crew pose beside the bubble in Paris.
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