Nirvana have reportedly issued a lawsuit against designer Marc Jacobs for allegedly stealing their iconic smiley face design.
A squiggly yellow smiley face illustration first appeared on a flyer for a release party for their ‘Nevermind’ album in 1991. The design was later trademarked by the band in 1992.
A new collection by Jacobs, titled the “Redux Grunge” collection, aims to celebrate the cultural significance of the clothing that surrounded the era of Cobain and co. According to TMZ, Nirvana filed a lawsuit last month claiming that the company rips off the smiley face design. You can see the Marc Jacobs design here.
Marc Jacobs are yet to respond to the claim.
Cobain’s daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, fronted a campaign for Jacobs’ Spring collection last year. She later defaced her own billboard, sharing videos and photos to Instagram of herself graffitiing over it with the words: “Witch, witch, she’s a witch”.
Frances Bean recently stated that she doesn’t consider modelling as a viable full-time career option. “I don’t think I’ll be modelling for anybody else for a very long time – this is 100 percent outside my comfort zone. I wouldn’t have done it with anyone other than Marc.”
“I could never do [modelling] professionally,” she added. “Thankfully I have other skills than just standing there and looking cute.”
“I’m not representing the beautiful top models of the world. I’m representing what a general, standard, average human girl would look like wearing these clothes. I think that’s why Marc picked me for this.”