This dress was one of my designs based on a fashion collection I made during a science and conservation course in South Africa. This dress illustrates the problematic industry of 'canned lion hunting' in which lions are raised to be killed by hunters from around the world who choose their 'ideal' lion on online platforms and travel to kill it. It is an unethical, guaranteed hunt and often illegal, since the lions are born and raised in confined cages and not nourished properly until they are drugged or baited to be shot from a few feet away. In addition, cubs of the confined lions are falsely marketed to tourists as orphans in need of care. People can pay to interact and 'save the cubs' as an additional money making scam. Canned lion hunting is very different from legal trophy hunting and other means of managing wildlife on game reserves since it is detrimental to the livelihoods of wild lions. The textile designs within the dress juxtapose lions raised for 'canned hunting' and free lions in wildlife preserves.
Single bed Silver Reed machine knit dress with wool, cotton blends, and mohair. I used vertical gathering techniques, knit weaving techniques, and knit cords.
Modeled by myself and photographed by Josiah Gill
Below: original reference drawing about canned lion hunting
