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Music Artist Billie Eilish's New Merch Appears to Use Traced Love Live! Fan Art
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
A new line of t-shirts and sweatshirts for sale on music artist Billie Eilish's web store appears to use traced artwork of Love Live! fanart. The merch was created as a collaboration with Los Angeles fashion brand Siberia Hills. Eilish's team unveiled the merch on August 7 and internet users were quick to point out the similarities between it and artist Makoto Kurokawa own work.
東條希ちゃん pic.twitter.com/IneTC0Cfrb
— 黒河真琴 (@m_qurokawa) August 15, 2018
Kurokawa is a popular artist on Twitter with over 45,000 followers. Fans have linked Eilish's product images on Kurokawa's account to ensure they are aware of the issue. Anime News Network reached out to Eilish's web store and Siberia Hills for comment but did not receive a response by press time.
Twitter users also pointed out that British YouTuber FaZe Kay also released a line with Siberia Hills earlier this year. The artwork on FaZe Kay's line shows two anime characters in military gear. The character on the right appears to be directly taken and recolored from the cover of artist Matsuryū's Sekai no Tokushu Butai Amerika-hen (Illustrated by Matsuryū! Special Forces from Around the World: America Edition) artbook.
Matsuryū is the character designer for Qualidea Code, Girls Beyond the Wasteland, and the character Alleyne from the Queen's Blade franchise.
The Siberia Hills store features more "anime" fashion items, including a pair of jeans with art of Sailor Moon's Hotaru Tomoe (referred to as an "anime girl" in the product description) for US$340. The brand was founded by Russian native Daf Orlovsky and released its first line of merchandise in 2017.
Eilish has dabbed in the anime aesthetic before. Contemporary artist Takashi Murakami (Superflat Monogram, 6HP - Six Hearts Princess) and his Poncotan animation studio animated the music video for her track "you should see me in a crown".
