Designer shuts down Lorde's theft accusation towards Kanye West

Lorde accused Kanye West of "stealing" her stage design from her Coachella set in 2017. Photo / Getty Images

The set designer behind Lorde's Coachella stage in 2017 has shut down the singer's accusations of theft towards Kanye West.

Yesterday, Lorde shared images of her Coachella stage in 2017 alongside Kanye West and Kid Cudi's stage at Camp Flog Gnaw festival over the weekend. Both featured floating glass boxes.

"I'm proud of the work I do, and it's flattering when other artists feel inspired by it, to the extent that they choose to try it on themselves," she wrote in an Instagram story. "But don't steal—not from women or anyone else—not in 2018 or ever."

it appears Lorde has seen Kanye’s new Kids See Ghosts stage 👀👁👀 pic.twitter.com/mqpFvn4nls

— Joe Coscarelli (@joecoscarelli) November 12, 2018

Es Devlin, who designed Lorde's Coachella stage and has previously worked with West, dismissed Lorde's accusation in a post on Instagram.

"I admire both and see no imitation at work here. I think the more interesting point is that both artists, responding to our disjointed times, are being drawn to this gesture of the fragile floating room: the world un-moored from gravity, where the rules of civilisation are identity as we have known them may soon no longer apply."

Devlin shared images on her Instagram of a similar floating box from an English National Opera production of Carmen dating back to 2007.

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CARMEN by Georges Bizet , English National Opera 2007. . In Act 3 of Carmen, Jose decides to leave the rules and formal certainty of the army in search of liberation: The quest means un-mooring oneself from the known and risking anarchy, chaos, loss of identity.

A post shared by Es Devlin (@esdevlin) on Nov 13, 2018 at 5:15am PST

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CARMEN by Georges Bizet , English National Opera 2007

A post shared by Es Devlin (@esdevlin) on Nov 13, 2018 at 5:16am PST

Performing as Kids See Ghosts, West and Kid Cudi's stage was designed by Trask House, who worked on West's floating stage for his Saint Pablo tour. Owner John McGuire told the New York Times that Lorde "wasn't the first person to use a floating glass box".

"She doesn't own it, her designer didn't invent it." He added: "Cubes and floating aren't new to Kanye West, stage design or architecture. A quick google of floating glass box brings up many instances of suspended glass cubes."