Protecting: the hunter becomes the hunted

A lot of cool innovations & designs in (product, graphic, interior)Design, Art, Music, Fashion & Architecture gathers all in this one week in Japan. The Tokyo Designers Week 2014 is focused on the 4 main themes : Design, Music, Fashion & Art. This year the 29th edition took place. Some of the innovations or designs shown on this Designweek, will get a little extra attention down here. The first in this series: the hunter becomes the hunted project by Rohan Chhabra. 

The first thing you will see in this project is either a clothing item or an animal. Viewing the transformation of one into the other embodies this project. The project 'Embodying ethics : Endangered' aims to inform the issue of extinction of critical endangered species. The designer Roshan Bashra designed a series of hunting jacket, which can transform into a representation of the animal under threat. Therefor reminding us of our complicity in this problem.

"As merely a fashion item, there is a sense in which the hunter jacket empowers without guilt, but then it reminds us of the ultimate source of this potency- the act of slaying a living creature and transforming it into an object, a decorative accessory, a trophy. Rather than condemning the hunter outright, they enable us to recognise the hunter in ourselves. The aim is to create a disturbing experience that moves from aesthetics to moral reflexion."  

(quote: Dr. Stephen Hayward)

Rohan graduated in 2008 with a degree in Fashion from the Pearl Academy of Fashion in New dehli. He received a scholarship for the prestigious Central Saint Martins in London to pursue a Masters in Industrial Design. After graduating he worked 2 years at Nike. 

Since 2013, Rohan is working on this project, he showed at the London design Festival and the Tokyo Designer Week

Rohan makes us think about our roll now and for the future. A future where the animals we see, can merely be items of exhibition. Because they became extinct, so the hunter becomes the hunted. 

All photos property of Rohan Chhabra