Singer Billie Eilish Cancelled Her New Fashion Collection After a Design Collaborator Admitted to Stealing an Artist’s Work

The singer Billie Eilish swiftly pulled apparel produced in
collaboration with fashion brand Siberia Hills from her website
after social-media critics accused her of copying anime fan artists
without permission.

Last week, Eilish unveiled the small capsule collection, which
includes a t-shirt and a hoodie, and almost immediately, Twitter
user @nesturr pointed out that
the design featured Nozomi Tojo, a character from the anime
show Long Live! The Tweet has since amassed
58,800 likes and 25,000 retweets.

Makoto Kurokawa, a fan artist with 45,000 Twitter followers,
drew Nozomi Tojo scantily clad in a bikini and repeated four
times. A very similar image from Siberia Hills, which also featured
the name Billie written in Japanese characters, altered the color
of the character’s hair and bathing suit.

“To the talented artist Mr. M_Qurokawa, we apologize for taking
from your artwork for our merchandise collaboration with Billie
Eilish,” the company wrote on Instagram. “Billie and
her team were not aware we used your art, they just believed in the
product.” The company has cancelled production on the clothing, and
will refund all orders.

Siberia Hills, founded in 2017 by Russian designer Daf Orlovsky,
has been accused of copying anime art in the past. The brand rose
to prominence with a collection that featured characters from the
popular Japanese series Sailor Moon, and
the Anime News
Network suggested the brand used a drawing of a woman
in sexy military gear from artist Matsuryū for a line it released
earlier this year with British YouTube star FaZe Kay.

Eilish, too, has had similar run-ins in the past. The
17-year-old musician came under fire in June when the music video
for her single “bad
guy” appeared to take motifs from photographs
in Maurizio
Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari’s satirical art
magazine Toiletpaper.

The video’s director, Dave Meyers, has also been named in
lawsuits alleging that he copied artists’ works in Ariana Grande’s video “God Is a
Woman” and Kendrick Lamar’s “All the
Stars.”

In April, Eilish and Japanese artist Takashi Murakami released
an animated music video for her single “You Should See Me in a
Crown,” as well as matching limited-edition merchandise from
Apple Music. The anime-style video took eight months to produce
using motion capture technology and features an animated version of
Eilish who transforms into a spider-like monster, as well as
Murakami’s signature smiling flowers. The two had previously
collaborated on a photo shoot
for Garage magazine.

Murakami and his animation company, Studio PONCOTAN, held an exhibition about
the making of the video at the artist’s anime-themed Tokyo art
gallery, Animaga Zingaro, in July. On view were
story boards and other preparatory sketches and materials used in
the making of “You Should
See Me in a Crown,” as well as a life-size sculpture of the
animated version of Eilish.

The post Singer Billie Eilish Cancelled Her New Fashion
Collection After a Design Collaborator Admitted to Stealing an
Artist’s Work appeared first on artnet News.