Sammi Cheng takes the path of Julia Fox in her latest fashion editorial

Hong Kong star Sammi Cheng (郑秀文) has always been described as a “bold” dresser. But whatever level of boldness is no indication of polished sophistication. In a recent shoot for the China edition of V magazine, Ms Cheng stepped in front of the camera to try to outdo Julia Fox. The periodical shared a behind the scene reel of her shoot on Instagram. Chinese Netizens were shocked that she allowed herself to be photographed in this manner. Many thought that the broad fabric strapped to her chest made her look positively flat-chested, while some were horrified that she would need to go this far for fashion cred that she lacked to be begin with.

The offensive “tape” as it turned out, was not quite an adhesive band pasted onto to her chest. In the full-colour photograph used for the cover of V China’s latest issue, lensed by Hunan native Rick Yang, go-to photographer of many mainland magazines, Ms Cheng (as if in front of a green screen) was seen wearing an actual garment, with skin-coloured wings of what could be a regular but cup-less brassiere. The dash of a top was not credited, which could mean this was made just for this particular shoot. It is possible that the garment was assembled by the stylist, V China’s deputy styling director Xi Tizi. It is, however, not quite clear what Ms Xi was trying to achieve with the 57-year-old singer/actress going nearly topless.

The V China magazine cover of Sammi Cheng

In the end, Ms Cheng did not go all the way. Or, as authentic as Julia Fox, who has used just duck tape to barely cover her breasts. Duck tape fashion has been around since at least 2012, according to one New York Times report, but back then the tapes were used for making semblances of wearable garments. Raf Simons used them to decorate his clothes, as seen in his autumn/winter 2017 show. And then came American designer Drakhan Blackhart, who calls himself “the world’s only body tape expert”, and his work has appeared during New York Fashion Week. He sells the tapes by rolls through his company Black Tape Project. But it would take Demna Gvasalia’s full-tape catsuits featuring Balenciaga adhesives for the style to go mainstream.

It is not not understood why Sammi Cheng did not totally embrace tape fashion. Or why stylist Xi Tizi could not have bought the adhesive from Black Tape Project and properly bind the willing cover model. She would only need one roll for the truncated band across her star-subject’s chest. If this was going to be, instead, a wearable bandeau, it might have been more artistic if the black portion was designed as a bichu (笔触) or brush stroke. Rather, it was a hard, broad line, an insipid faux bandage that had the appeal of belts use for conveyors. One Chinese Facebook user didn’t mince his words when he commented: “这个比难看更高级, 这个叫恐怖!” Translation: this is more high-end than awful; this is called frightening.

Screen shot (top) and photograph: vchina/Instagram