66-YEAR GAP, ZERO DISTANCE: VAIN x AARNIO Collaboration Presents LOVE BUBBLE

We have partnered with Finnish fashion house VAIN for a rare cross-generational collaboration.

Together, we have reimagined Eero Aarnio's iconic 1968 Bubble Chair through a contemporary Finnish fashion lens. Titled LOVE BUBBLE, the project pairs Aarnio’s mid-century mastery with VAIN’s subcultural aesthetics.

First designed in 1968, Aarnio’s Bubble Chair has long naturally intersected with global pop culture. Seeking to build a bold contrast between historic mid-century design and contemporary Finnish fashion, VAIN and Eero Aarnio discovered a shared intuitive mindset during coffee and cake as we walked them through Aarnio's home studio in Veikkola, evolving our mutual connection into a full-scale creative partnership. 

Alongside Aarnio’s world-famous Ball Chair, the Bubble Chair has consistently served as an organic canvas for high fashion. Over its 50-plus-year history, the piece has been featured in countless fashion editorials, captured on the covers of Playboy, and posed in by pop culture icons from the 60s to the 21st century. Supporting the original design, VAIN’s structural aesthetic in the hanging chain features a custom VAIN heart-shaped carabiner and signature heart yokes appliquéd onto the seat cushion, embedding the brand's central motif directly into the iconic form.

The collaboration introduces Aarnio’s legacy to a 21st-century audience while reinforcing the importance of authentic, visionary design. VAIN's central ethos builds around the heart-motif for which we fell for to begin with. The heart runs through every VAIN collection, not as sentiment but as structure, repeated until it becomes a signature. The heart doesn't always have to be pink and cute, Jimi VAIN explained as he, in turn, introduced us their space in Helsinki. Known for their cultural touch-points like their upcycled McDonald's collection which reached over 200 million people worldwide — they now take the Bubble Chair into a new aesthetic territory.

For the campaign shoot we travelled together to Hanko for an ambitious shoot in the Finnish archipelago. Photographed in hazy am light, ballet dancer Fanni Frix stars poses in and with the Bubble chair, bringing a completely new energy to the interpretation of the classic design piece. LOVE BUBBLE proves that when driven by fearless experimentation, unapologetic self-expression, and a shared desire to cultivate a global presence through the unexpected, a multi-generational gap disappears entirely.

LOVE BUBBLE launches at a private event in Helsinki on the evening of the 3rd of September. The chair is released for sale for a limited 8 week period from the event, running until the 31st of October 2026 exclusively at aarniooriginals.com and jimivain.com.

Test and see the LOVE BUBBLE at VAIN Store Helsinki, Runeberginkatu 8 this autumn.

Purchase the limited edition LOVE BUBBLE here.