Billie Eilish’s merch pulled off website after admitting to using stolen anime art
IRL Parsec Upstream

Billie Eilish’s merch pulled off website after admitting to using stolen anime art

‘Billie Eilish is selling stolen Nozomi art in her merch.’

Julio Enriquez/Flickr (CC-BY)

Elizabeth VanMetre— | Last updated

It’s easy for people to pass others’ artwork as their own, especially in the anime fan art world. 

Billie Eilish, along with European streetwear fashion brand Siberia Hills, was accused of doing just that. Eilish and the brand dropped their new merchandise collaboration, called Love Live! Eilish shared a link to purchase the merch and people quickly took notice that the character in the art was Nozomi Tojo, and the art itself looked like it was made by popular artist Makoto Kurokawa.  

On Saturday, Siberia Hills released a statement on Instagram apologizing for using the art.

“To the talented artist Mr. M_Qurokawa, we apologize for taking from your artwork for our merchandise collaboration with Billie Eilish,” the company wrote. “Billie and her team were not aware we used your art, they just believed in the product.”

The clothing company went on to explain that everyone who made a purchase would be refunded.

The use of the stolen art was first pointed out by Twitter user @nestuur.

“Billie Eilish is selling stolen Nozomi art in her merch what the fuck. This is peak 2019, in a bad way,” @nestuur wrote in a tweet that has since amassed thousands of retweets.

The collab featured two hoodies and a T-shirt, all with a graphic of anime girls in four different poses. “Billie” is written in Katakana. 

Many were quick to point out that Siberia Hills has allegedly stolen art before.

“This ‘brand’ Siberia Hills are bootleg merch creators who steal copywritten materials and sell them at exorbitant prices which is illegal under both US and Japanese copyright laws,” Twitter user @NoiresDusk wrote. 

Eilish hasn’t yet publicly commented on the matter, but her original tweet promoting the merch is now gone, and all the merch has been taken off the website. 

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Katakana is not a language. 

READ MORE:

Got five minutes? We’d love to hear from you. Help shape our journalism and be entered to win an Amazon gift card by filling out our 2019 reader survey.

Elizabeth VanMetre

Elizabeth VanMetre

Elizabeth VanMetre is a reporter based in Wyoming. She is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School, and her work has appeared on ETOnline, the New York Daily News, Yahoo Travel, and more. She hosts a local morning show in Wyoming.

Recommendations