One evening, when Max Alexander was just 4 years old, he announced he was going to be a dressmaker.
“I figured it was one of those things that 4-year-olds say,” his mom, Sherri, told The Post.
But Alexander, now 7, quickly graduated from crafting frocks of knotted boas and scraps on makeshift mannequins to operating a sewing machine and experimenting with shapes and fabrics. The LA-based fashion prodigy has since amassed more than 2 million followers online, catching the eye of actress Sharon Stone, who commissioned a plush, white coat with feather-like shoulder details just a few months ago.
His designs, the first-grader tells The Post, are inspired by “everything around [him].” He’s created clothing made from candy, coffee sacks or, in one instance, more than 8,000 rubber bands. Alexander has handcrafted more than 100 pieces since his humble beginnings just three years ago.
“I really want to do a spoon and fork dress,” the young courtier said of his next endeavor, adding that he hopes to double his impressive archives in the next few years.
In fact, he has proudly declared that he was “Gucci” in a past life, referring to Maurizio Gucci, whose family founded the namesake fashion house.
But Alexander is a regular 7-year-old with a childlike fascination with, well, everything — he tinkers with his studio’s Roomba vacuum while on Zoom, expressing his obsession with machines of any kind.
His young naiveté is a gift, Sherri explains, because he doesn’t think about things “like an adult” which adds to the whimsy of his designs.
“He’s designing like a kid,” Sherri said.
And to him, Sharon Stone is “just a beautiful, nice person that he’s made a coat for,” his mom said.
“He doesn’t comment on nor care about people’s weight or size. The lack of influence from the adult world allows his curiosity to run wild — when he saw a circle skirt, he questioned why square, rectangle and triangle skirts don’t exist. Then, he made them a reality.”
Alexander has presented multiple runway collections, the latest held in November, during which he was “fanning” the models to keep them cool backstage.
“He told me at one point, ‘Can you go get all my models some Champagne, please?’ ” Sherri recalled with a laugh.
But his rigorous academic schedule has placed limitations on his glitzy extracurriculars — the family can’t turn their lives on a dime to catch a flight to New York Fashion Week. The demands of being both a studious grade-schooler and an up-and-coming designer are getting “progressively harder” to manage, but his parents are doing their best to juggle childhood with sartorial success.
“I know nothing — literally nothing — about fashion,” Sherri said. “I’ve made some mistakes along the way and I’m learning and we’re just trying to do right by Max, and we always go back to: Is this something Max wants to do? Is he still having fun?”
Alexander’s online fame has yet to go to his head, in part because his parents shield him from the harsh reality of the internet.
Sherri manages his Instagram account — she doesn’t “want him too involved in it” — where he receives upwards of 500 to 1,000 messages every single day and is only told about the kind comments of support and the occasional commission request.
“He knows people want his work. He knows, like, if he wants to make a dress that he can sell it,” she said, adding that Alexander sets the price for his pieces, although he’s hanging on to a few of his “babies” that he can’t bear to part with.
“I just don’t feel like he needs to ever know the amount of followers,” Sherri continued. “I don’t want him to ever equate that with his self-worth, because it has nothing to do with it and his talent.”
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