“Billie and her team were not aware we used your art, they just believed in the product.”
Billie Eilish has cancelled an upcoming fashion line after it emerged that the designer had copied another artist’s work.
Last week, Eilish unveiled a new capsule collection in collaboration with Siberia Hills. Among the designs were a t-shirt and hoodie adorned with anime character Nozomi Tojo from the show Long Live! Fans pointed out that the design had a very strong resemblance to one by Makoto Kurokawa – who had drawn Tojo scantily in a bikini in four different positions.
Compare the two designs below.
Ok so we’re all in the kno
•SiberianHills collab with Billie Eilish and stole artwork from JP artist @/m_qurokawa
•SH artist says theyre “in talks” with JP artist after deleting comments calling them out
•Comments get disabled
•Early version of hoodie gets deleted off SHs IG pic.twitter.com/lirCUIahvW— THAT’S THE CRUEL ANGEL’S TEA SIS (@yonkerzbarz) August 9, 2019
The colour of the character’s hair and bikini had been altered for the Siberia Hills design, and the word ‘Billie’ was added in Japanese. After it had come to light that the image had been taken without Kurokawa’s permission, the fashion brand then took to Instagram to apologise, before production on the shirts was pulled and refunds were made available.
“To the talented artist Mr. M_Qurokawa, we apologize for taking from your artwork for our merchandise collaboration with Billie Eilish,” they wrote. “Billie and her team were not aware we used your art, they just believed in the product.”
Meanwhile, last month saw Eilish details details of a new graffiti-inspired clothing line in association with designers Freak City.
With everything from graffitied shirts and shorts to skirts, tube tops and even neon goggles, the collection is up for purchase on the singer’s website.
Earlier this month, Eilish made history by joining Alanis Morissette and Sinead O’Connor as the only female soloists to notch multiple No. 1 singles on Billboard‘s Alternative Songs list since its inception 31 years ago.
Eilish’s track ‘bad guy’ climbed to the top of the alternative charts, Billboard announced last week (August 8), after ‘bury a friend’ reigned at the peak for two weeks in May. This also makes the 17-year-old the youngest female solo artist to bag the honour.
After the runaway success of her huge debut album ‘When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go?’, Eilish will return to the UK later this month to perform at Reading & Leeds Festival – where her slot has been promoted to the main stage due to phenomenal demand.
