The Black Tape Project: Sexy Fashion Meets Body Tape
A journey into the world of fashionable duct tape
Duct tape-made bikinis and swimwear? American designer and body tape artist Joel Alvarez’s brainchild —the Black Tape Project — is doing to fashion what vinyl did to music.
The fashion world has become much sexier since the so-called “King of Tape” started showcasing his work on catwalks across the United States.
Joel is a self-taught photographer and artist who has managed to do a business based on his creative insight into the new pleasure economy.
That creative insight has caught on, and now the designer is on his way to becoming a highly successful entrepreneur.
- BTP motto: “Empowering women since 2008.”
- BTP product: “The only skin-safe artistic body tape.”
The designs created and published by BTP are often shared on social media, where it has over 600 thousand followers on Instagram alone. Joel uses his social channels to promote his product, which he then sells on the BTP’s official shop.
The rise of the Black Tape Project
Joel Alvarez’s life story is truly remarkable, as he explains on the Project’s official website. He is a first-generation Cuban American, born and raised in Miami.
In 2008 the artist moved out from his “run-down property not suitable for living that smelled like a wet dog” and had “pink water coming out of the bathtub” and “holes in the roof that were the size of a microwave.”
Joel found himself living in his car and running out of gas in every aspect of his life, simply going by and struggling to make ends meet.
He recounts how he was at the lowest point in his life and how at some point, he dropped his “knees and looked up to the night sky and cried.”
But when you’re at the bottom of a pit, the only way left for you to go is up. Joel soon realized that chaos isn’t a pit; it’s a ladder.
While cleaning the place, Joel found a box hidden by his late grandfather with over $26,000, some so old that it seemed they had been inside the closet for the last four decades.
How a creator duct-taped his way to the catwalk
Joel used the money to fix the roof and pay the debt on his car. After a bit of partying, he realized that almost all the money had gone up in smoke, and with his last $1500, he purchased a camera, even if he “didn’t have the slightest idea of photography.”
This was his leap of faith into the creator economy. From taking pictures for local stores and magazines, he soon started working with local models and the alternative fashion industry, making its way up in the new economy of pleasure and getting published in Maxim and Playboy.
The eureka moment occurred when one of his models pulled out a roll of duct tape and asked to be taped during a shoot.
Afterward, Joel worked at Miami clubs taping dancers. That’s where he perfected the techniques he still uses today: “I had to work fast and make designs that wouldn’t fall apart when they danced.”
A fashionista’s introduction to duct tape
Joel calls himself the “world’s only body tape expert, founder, and pioneer of the Body Tape Art Genre.”
The artist has been showcased at EDC Vegas, Ultra Miami, Singapore, and every major nightclub in Miami, Ibiza, and the Cannes Film Fest since 2014.
He also worked with movie directors like Michael Bay and recording artists like Rick Ross in several Maybach music videos, including Maluma “la luz.”
Sexy body tape takes fashion to the next level
I first laid eyes on the artist’s work at the Faena Forum in Miami Beach during the city’s Swim Week. Watching the designer create his work live on the catwalk is quite the experience.
Joel starts by cutting small pieces of tape and pulls them across the model’s body, with the idea of creating geometric shapes with tribal and futuristic inspirations. The gorgeous model’s curvilinear forms are accentuated as the artist draws black lines across her body.
The artist has come a long way since he taped that first model that 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. — BTP
Catwalk seduction on high heels and duct tape
Afterward, we have the chance to contemplate a collection of taped swimwear for all tastes, from unicorn-colored bikinis to sharp metallic patterns and rainbow-themed color palettes.
There is no doubt about it, Joel’s designs are truly mesmerizing.
This was the first time the ‘Black Tape Project’ gained visibility. Then, Joel took his creations to the Fashion Weeks of major American cities
The new trend is spawning out of the Miami and New York catwalks, as women worldwide are adopting this unique style and showing up at parties and dance clubs wearing nothing but black tape on their bodies.
Final thoughts
Joel shared how The Black Tape Project has saved his life and helped him provide for his family and collaborators.
The artist is now teaching his art in workshops where he shows his students how you only need two rolls of tape for a complete bodywear design that will make heads turn every time.
Do you want to know how a creator’s artwork can catch an audience’s attention? Look at the young man wearing a yellow shirt in the video below.
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