ILLIT’s Concept Photos Trigger Fresh Claims of Imitating NewJeans

Min Hee Jin is under the spotlight again as netizens dig up fresh plagiarism accusations involving ILLIT and NewJeans.

The controversy began when a viral post pointed out a strange similarity between ILLIT’s recent “Not Cute Anymore” concept photos and NewJeans’ stage props. ILLIT members were seen wearing LED belt accessories, dubbed “doll belts” by the creator. Fans noticed these resemble the custom LED belt accessories NewJeans wore at ComplexCon, which showed each member’s initials and cute retro emojis.

NewJeans were seen rocking their LED belts in March 2025. ILLIT’s photos came out later in November. While they look a bit different, many say the design idea clearly came from NewJeans.

“NJZs’ custom made belt accessories by KIMUNE for ComplexCon #엔제이지 #NJZ”
— ౨ৎ NewJeans Closet (@newjeanscloset_) March 25, 2025

Netizens slammed ILLIT, pointing out more borrowing from NewJeans beyond just belts:

“It’s definitely not just one or two things. This has been going on for a while.”

“If NewJeans hadn’t existed, that kind of item wouldn’t have come out at all.”

“ILLIT’s ‘Not Cute Anymore’ was a collaboration with a designer named Ashley Williams, but they just pieced everything together and slapped it on, lol. Are they really trying to accuse even a famous foreign designer of plagiarism?”

“The more you dig, the more things come out.”

“At this point, isn’t their concept board probably just covered wall-to-wall with NewJeans?”

“They’re seriously using another girl group from the same company as a reference book.”

The backlash continues as fans also accuse a recent ILLIT music video of depicting NewJeans as monsters.

This comes after Min Hee Jin won a court case against HYBE, bringing more attention to these plagiarism claims.

We’re watching closely as the drama unfolds.