Billie Eilish is well known for her creative collabs, having joined forces with the likes of Takashi Murakami and Freak City in the last few months alone. Her latest collection, which saw her team up with fashion label Siberia Hills, however, was pulled from (digital) shelves, after Eilish was made aware that the artwork featured throughout the capsule line ripped off an anime fan artist.
Having unveiled the collection last week, Twitter user @nestuur was quick to point out that the design featured the character Nozomi Tojo of Long Live!, who had previously been depicted wearing a bikini by Makoto Kurokawa, an artist with over 45k followers. On the Siberia Hills garments, only Nozomi’s hair colour and the colour of her bikini had been changed.
Siberia Hills later posted an apology to its Instagram page: “To the talented artist Mr. M_Qurokawa, we apologise for taking your artwork for our merchandise collaboration with Billie Eilish. Billie and her team were not aware we used your art, they just believed in the product.”
Eilish has now removed the collection from her merch site, production has ceased, and anyone who has placed an order will be refunded.
While the outcome of this situation is largely positive, plagiarism remains a huge problem within the fashion industry, with the likes of Missguided, Zara, ASOS, and Topshop having all previously come under fire for copying the work of young artists and designers.