Just a day after accusing Chrissy Teigen of “cyber slander,” designer Michael Costello has been hit with allegations about his own behind-the-scenes behavior.
In an Instagram Story shared Tuesday, British pop singer Leona Lewis said Costello made her feel “very awkward and uncomfortable” before a 2014 fashion show when his team refused to alter a dress to her size.
“This came as a total surprise because weeks prior I was told that they would make the dress work for me,” Lewis wrote, as seen in screenshots captured by People and other outlets. “At the next fitting, the night before the show, with no explanation at all, Michael refused to turn up. He no longer wanted to dress me and he abandoned his commitments to me and the show which made me well aware that I wasn’t the body type required.”
The three-time Grammy nominee said the alleged incident left her “embarrassed and deeply hurt.”
“Because I didn’t look like a model size, I was not permitted to walk in his dress,” she continued. “I remember having to come up with excuses as I was so humiliated by it all. I feel like I was made to look as though I pulled out and was being difficult and as an [effect] of those actions I suffered a lot, both personally and professionally.”
Costello, who competed on the eighth season of “Project Runway” and later “Project Runway All-Stars,” responded to Lewis’ claims on his own Instagram Stories.
After noting he does not “take accusations of body shaming lightly,” the designer wrote, “If I did unintentionally hurt you and you continued to support me, I want to apologize to you directly.”
“All of this is very shocking for me to hear because you’ve continued to wear me, tag me, and asked for another dress even last month,” he added, according to a transcript of the Instagram Story posted by Just Jared, a celebrity news site.
Lewis’ accusations came roughly 24 hours after Costello made bullying claims about Teigen, who was already facing backlash after Courtney Stodden accused her of harassing them on Twitter.
After Teigen apologized for her comments to Stodden in a Medium blog, Costello fired back with an Instagram testimonial in which he said he “has thoughts of suicide” over what he described as the model and cookbook author’s attempts to destroy his career.
“When I reached out to Chrissy Teigen to communicate that I was the victim of a vindictive cyber slander, and the everything she thought I was is not who I am, she told me that my career was over and that all my doors will be shut from there on,” he wrote. “And wow, did she live up to her words.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, Teigen had not responded publicly to Costello’s allegations.