Models take to the runway covered only in tape for New York Fashion Week (photos)

New York Fashion Week is in full swing and models are creating a buzz among the fashion community by walking the runway in nothing but body tape. 

The event, which comes twice a year, commenced last Friday, and a selection of innovative creations have already made the catwalk. 

On Saturday, September 7, the spotlight was on The Black Tape Project, powered by House of Paradise producer Mossab Alsaray.

It is the work of Drakhan Blackhart, a Cuban American raised in Miami, who has dubbed himself the “world’s only body tape expert” and a “pioneer of the body tape art genre”.

Blackhart’s designs use minimal fabric, allowing the focus to remain purely on the black tape, making the outfits particularly revealing.

While most designers prepare outfits in advance for fashion week, Blackhart got to work on the runway and applied the black tape in front of an audience. 

One model posed in the middle of the runway while the designer applied the tape across her body. 

Though most of the designs focused on black body tape, models also wore metallic colours of blue and green around their wrists. Blackhart added a further dynamic to other models’ looks by embellishing their tape with studs. 

“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,” Blackhart explained on his website. 

“At first, I was very defensive about anyone replicating this concept that I felt was mine and mine alone. But I soon realised that it was this specific journey that would allow me to open my skill, techniques and secrets to the world and that’s what truly launched me to success.”

See photos below.