Sticking with fashion: Villanova grad creates duct tape tux

Windsor, Ont. -

A recent Lasalle high school grad is competing for a $10,000 scholarship.

“Approximately 160 hours and 27 rolls of duct tape in the span of six months,” says Ryan Bekic.

Villanova grad, 18-year-old Bekic has created a tuxedo out of duct tape.

“There’s no original suit underneath here. It’s all created with a textile, made out of a bed sheet with duct tape stuck to the outside,” explains Bekic. 

Bekic is a finalist in the ‘Stuck at Prom‘ Duct Tape scholarship contest.

“He’s pretty talented and he’s got a lot of artwork and design that he has so I thought go for it, you’ve got the skill,” says Bekic’s mom, Cathy.

The front represents evil coming up and the back however is much more floral and designed to showpiece and love.

Inspired by runway fashion, the two-sided tuxedo even has moving wings.

“It’s essentially a double play on the angel and devil motif. It displays that for every evil appearance there’s level of good and love in every single person,” says Bekic.

Besides the challenge of creating the costume, Bekic was recently diagnosed with keratoconus, a progressive disease of the eye.

“There were days that my specialty contacts weren’t in yet and I couldn’t see three feet in front of me and trying to create a perfection I was striving for was challenging,” says Bekic.

“He was determined from after school till 2:00 in the morning. Each Rose was like twenty minutes to do, but he just kept putting everything he had into it and never gave up,” says Cathy.

Pursuing a major in biology and fine art in the fall at the University of Windsor, Bekic hopes the $10,000 top prize will help him pay for it.

“It would really help me out if you could drop some votes in my section. I’d really appreciate it,” says Bekic

If you want to help Ryan win, you can cast your vote here. Voting closes on July 14.