Filipino fashion designer Michael Cinco is one of the biggest names in the global fashion scene today. Known for his majestic gowns that can truly make any fashionistas fly on couture fantasy high, it’s easy to see why Cinco has been dubbed as the ‘palpable designer’. With a quiet, seemingly mysterious personality, he’s never been involved in any drama everrr—that’s why fashion fans have been quite shocked to hear Michael Cinco’s name dragged into a hot mess after the recent Miss Universe pageant.
Cinco famously created couture gowns for at least four candidates at the recently held Miss Universe competition. They were Miss Romania Bianca Tirsin, Miss Czech Republic Klara Vavrushkova, Miss Mexico and Miss Universe winner Andrea Meza and lastly, Miss Canada Nova Stevens– whose images in Dubai went viral after donning a fabulous yellow creation by Cinco. The said photo shoot was produced and creative directed by the designer himself. Michael also dressed Stevens in another yellow creation for the coronation night’s evening gown segment.
However, Miguel Martinez, publicist from MGMode Communications, seemed unimpressed by all the grand efforts of Cinco for the Canadian Miss U rep. Miguel made scandalous comments on an Instagram post insinuating that the palpable designer “sabotaged” Miss Canada by sending his creations late for the Miss Universe coronation night. He further stated that the gowns did not fit the beauty pageant candidate well, claiming that the Canada Org even had to fix one gown for the finals, but failed to do the same for the prelims gown. Martinez also claimed that Cinco did the same thing to Miss Universe Argentina and Miss Universe Uruguay last year.
Not long after the publicist’s rant was posted, Cinco took to Instagram and Facebook to air his side, shutting down the accusations by explaining the situation in detail. The designer clarified that the gowns in fact arrived on time, that the org even had the time to take photos of the gowns pre-pageant. Michael was not having any of it, and further revealed that the MU Canada’s team could have been at least grateful, especially since the designer had been making couture pieces for the candidates of Miss U Canada for the past three years on a pro bono basis. Furthermore, the designer revealed that his team invested money for the beauty queen’s extra publicity mileage. Cinco also shared that the other Miss U candidates he made gowns for for the Miss U pageant like Czech Republic, Romania, and Mexico (who did not get to use Cinco’s creation anymore) all expressed their heartfelt gratitude.
The designer furthermore revealed that he felt “scammed” by the MU Canada Org for not even compensating him for all his creations for the Miss Canada beauty queens for the past three years. He described the Miss Universe Canada Org as “ungrateful” and “professional users” in his statement.
MGmode responded to Cinco’s statement through a video interview, and insisted that he was telling the truth. However he cleared that he never said that the gowns were ‘ill-fitting’. “I would never say that, even if it was true, I would never say that. But, I did say that (the) gowns arrived late, the gowns didn’t fit properly and somehow, they find time to make other gowns for other delegates.” He also cleared that their PR team has always been independent, working on some girls separately from the Miss Canada Org also on an exchange deal basis.
Martinez also shared that their PR team and Cinco planned a “transformer gown” for Stevens’ final evening gown for the pageant. “It was a collaborative effort for that one. It was beautiful, amazing, incredible. It was everything we wanted. But it didn’t happen.”
He then recalled that they went to Dubai twice and even on their second visit to Cinco’s warehouse, Stevens’ gowns for the Miss Universe pageant were still not finished. He said that Stevens checked in on May 7 at the hotel in Florida, USA without her pageant gowns. The gowns only arrived on the 11th of May, less than a week before the coronation night. The publicist also claimed that Cinco said he was only dressing the hosts for the pageant aside from Stevens.
“It confused me… Why do you have time for other people’s gowns when you have this huge commitment?”
Following Cinco’s post, Martinez shared they’ve been attacked online, “We have received and recorded over 400 death threats, so far, and that’s only from Instagram,” he said. He said he reached out to the designer to ask assistance on stopping the online hate, but the designer has not replied yet to his private messages.
“I love you. Sorry if I hurt you. Those were some mean words, like really mend. But hopefully, we can still mend this,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Canadian beauty queen lamented in a 4-minute Instagram video that the two parties should stop fighting. She also urged some beauty pageant fans to stop throwing hate messages and negativity.
“This really breaks my heart because I love you both so much and you both helped me in many ways that I can ever imagine,” she said. “I just want you guys to stop fighting. I want this to be taken privately. I don’t think you are both deserving of this. It’s unfair to all of your hard work. I don’t want anyone to question your integrity,” she said.
Stevens also shared that working with Michael Cinco has been a highlight of her career. “I’ve never once imagined I would work with you because you’re Michael Cinco. The fact that I was able to work with you is honestly a highlight of my career as Miss Universe Canada,” she said. “I just wanted you to know that that gratitude will never diminish no matter what. And I’ve expressed that gratitude privately and publicly,” she added.
The designer did not respond nor address further the latest statements from the two parties. It was however impactful how Cinco expressed that Filipino designers should not be “scammed” again to make free gowns for Miss U Canada.
“Next time don’t ask me or any Filipino designers to dress up your candidates. Ask your Canadian designers to showcase their works in world stage,” he said. “I don’t need you in my career and dressing up your candidates will not help my business. Stop taking advantage of my kindness and stop scamming Filipino designers,” he added.
It can be recalled that a lot of Filipino fashion designers had been able to showcase their creations at the recently held Miss Universe 2020. Would Cinco’s ordeal change the way how Filipino fashion designers are treated in the global pageant stage?