Netizens are revisiting allegations of Belift Lab's potential plagiarism issues regarding ILLIT's creative direction.
On an online forum, users reacted to a recent comparison involving ILLIT's concept photos from their 1st single album 'NOT CUTE ANYMORE,' which featured a series of images incorporating hair and various objects. In the photos, the backs of the members’ heads with different hairstyles are styled with random objects, such as makeup items, brushes, and cell phones.
However, the photos sparked controversy when netizens discovered a previous photoshoot circulating on the Chinese online marketplace Ali Express. The images showed the backs of women’s heads styled with nearly identical objects and a similar overall concept to ILLIT's photos.
ILLIT:
Found on Ali Express:
In one image, long dark braids have old school earbuds woven into them, closely resembling a similar style seen on Ali Express. In another, school supplies such as rulers and pens are placed in the hair, while silver flip phones are clipped onto long straight hair like accessories.
According to netizens, the photoshoot found on Ali Express dates back to 2023, while ILLIT's photos were released in November 2025.
Many expressed surprise that the source of the earlier images appeared to be an online shopping platform, describing the similarities as "too obvious and identical." Another netizen claimed the photoshoot was originally an installation art piece by an artist that was later found on Ali Express.
Notably, some agreed that gathering aesthetic references is a common and legitimate practice in creative production. However, they argued that the composition and object placement in this case were "too similar to be regarded as mere references." ILLIT's concept shoot was also done in collaboration with Ashley Williams London, which netizens noted had previously collaborated with NewJeans.
However, others disagreed, pointing out that the trend of placing objects in long hair is widespread and can easily be found on platforms such as Pinterest, Instagram, Vogue, and X.
These issues resurfaced following the recent court ruling in favor of Min Hee Jin, which stated that ILLIT was "similar" to NewJeans and that there was insufficient evidence to fully dismiss plagiarism claims. In addition, former NewJeans choreographer BLACK.Q was seen supporting Min Hee Jin at her latest press conference and later signed with her new company ooak records.
Reactions include:
"Stuff like that is common, but why is it so identical lol."
"If this were the first time, maybe. But why is it always ILLIT overlapping and overlapping?"
"If it were just the props that were similar, maybe. But the shooting angle, color tone, and poses are all the same lol. They are even copying an Ali shop?"
"I looked up their Instagram through the ID and it says they are an installation artist"
"Every time there is controversy, they say it is a common design and treat regular people like idiots."
"You can accidentally follow a trend once in a while. But they are basically at the level of a reference group with nothing original at all."
"They copied and pasted even the composition and details."
"Following a reference without any modification is copying. The fans defending it are seriously clueless."
"This is really too much. It is not just a simple reference. They copied the hairstyle and props exactly."
"But I have already seen things like that a lot on Pinterest lol."
"If you are going to use it as a reference, at least modify it. Why bring it over exactly and invite this kind of criticism?"
"It is the label that even borrowed the Ashley Williams designer who already collaborated with NewJeans."
"In this industry, are there any creations without references? I would say almost none lol. But ILLIT does not create something new from references. They bring over the composition and props almost exactly and copy them. That is always the problem. I am not trying to drag them."
"They are always involved in copying controversies."
"This just looks like a trend. It is too common to say they plagiarized a specific person."
"Honestly, this keeps happening, but I do not get what is supposed to belong to only one specific person. It is just a trend lol."
"If it is a common concept on Pinterest, does that mean if the composition and props are the same it is just a reference?"
"But HYBE always follows things to the point where it is hard to tell if it is copying or not."
"Since it started off wrong, people cannot help but see it that way."
"Honestly, they used it almost exactly as it was. A reference should be for inspiration. Who shoots something that identically?"
"This is a common trend, but seeing posts like this pop up so often makes it feel like they are not creating by referencing sources, but rather just relying too much on them."
In other news, newly released court documents confirmed that HYBE Labels purchased albums by artists in advance to increase album sales figures, along with widespread "push out" practices among subsidiary labels. Meanwhile, former NewJeans member Danielle was recently spotted cheering at the Tokyo Marathon.
What are your thoughts?
SEE ALSO: ILLIT’s 'Magnetic' surpasses 300 million streams on Oricon
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