We all screamed a little when Vogue Italia was recently taken over by artists, and now US Vogue has got a piece of the action by commissioning a number of artists to illustrate Billie Eilish. The March 2020 issue of American Vogue comes in the choice of THREE different covers, two of which were snapped by photographers Harley Weir and Ethan James Green, while the third was taken by Moroccan Artist Hassan Hajjaj.
The triple-covers see pop-sensation Billie Eilish in her trademark style, while in additional images inside the mag also show Eilish wearing garments from Hajjaj’s Andy Wahloo line, which literally means “I have nothing” in Arabic.
This artistic inspiration carries on throughout the mag with the help of a number of additional artists. In one image, Eilish recreates In Just a Blink of an Eye, a performance work by Chinese conceptual artist Xu Zhen. The work was first performed in 2005 in Beijing, is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and is now awarded iconic status in the pages of Vogue thanks to Eilish’s performance decked out head to toe in Balenciaga.
But that’s not all! Besides photography and performance, Vogue also features Eilish-inspired paintings and illustrations. One such work is by LA-based artist Jesse Mockrin, who took inspiration from Caravaggio, portraying Eilish with a basket of fruit.
Meanwhile, Vogue reached out to two SUPER young artists to also create fan-art. At just 16 (!!!) Russian-born Nastya Kovtun has the accolade of producing a digital cover for US Vogue – the youngest ever person to do so. In fact, she thought the opportunity was too good to be true, with an article on Vogue’s website explaining that the magazine had to send her proof that it was not a scam.
Kaylee Yang meanwhile, who is just 20 and from Michigan, explains on her IG that she was personally recommended for the job by Eilish herself! (Pretty amazing, huh?!)
Vogue completely outdid itself on the art stakes for this issue, we just can’t get enough! Perhaps we’ll even see Eilish become even more artistically involved in her upcoming projects, we’ll be on-the-look-out to see what she does next!
Text Lizzy Vartanian