MODELS have dared to go bold, shedding all fear, and clothing, opting for just tape for a risqué runway show
Makeshift duct-tape bikinis, designed by the label Black Tape Project, covered up the models as they strutted down the strip at NYFW last weekend.
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The brand is the brainchild of self-proclaimed body tape expert Joel Alvarez, a “pioneer of the body tape art genre” and the “only body tape expert in the world.”
The event, which took place at The Angel Orensanz Foundation, featured geometric designs that, while creative, left very little to the imagination.
With each step the models took, the audience held its breath, made anxious by the intricate contraptions barely keeping their private bits under wraps.
For what was probably one of the most revealing shows on the runway last week, provocative style is not new at New York Fashion Week.
Past shows have featured mainly monochromatic looks with black and white tape and much skimpier designs.
Alvarez’s latest, however, incorporated multi-colored, flashy, and layered designs, such as a space-themed tape jumpsuit with a variety of colors.
Other styles included cross-body “tops” fashioned out of tape, tape jewelry, and even shoes.
Black Tape Project was inspired by a shoot Alvarez had with a model who requested that he tape her.
Although his first taping left much to be desired, he nevertheless saw potential in the project.
“The design was so incomplete and extremely tight,” he said.
“She looked like the Michelin Man who lost a fight with rubber bands.
“I kept at it because I kept seeing lines and I found the ability to compliment the body by adding lines and creating negative spaces that called to the viewers.”
After a few years of experience taping dancers at clubs, the designer had built up the skill needed to work fast and come up with designs that lasted the dancers through their sets.
“Today, I am focused on teaching and educating others by encouraging the world to try this new genre of body art with a collection of our own skin-safe body tape that I have curated from my own projects in the past,” he said.
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