Max Alexander is only 6-years-old, but his clothing designs are so cool he is getting commissions from celebrities

• Max Alexander started making clothes when he was 4.
• He took sewing lessons and put on his first fashion show in 2022.

Max Alexander was 4 when he announced he was going to be a dressmaker.

His parents were confused; they'd never seen him make a dress. His mother, Sherri Madison, said he told them that was because he didn't have a mannequin — if they got him one, he'd make a dress.

Madison, an artist who works primarily with reused cardboard, made him a cardboard mannequin. Sure enough, Max pinned string and material to it to make his first dress. He saved up for a sewing machine, purchased from a store that offered free lessons on Saturdays. Soon his skills outstripped his mother's. Now one of his pieces cansell for $1,200 the family told Spectrum1 News in 2022. With the money he makes, he buys more fabric for clothing. Madison said he makes one dress per week.

Today, Max, who's about to turn 7, has nearly 1 million followers on Instagram, where he documents his couture creations: fringed floor-skimming dresses, mermaid-inspired gowns, and rainbow pom-pom vests. He's juggling requests from celebrities and working toward his second runway show, and he's just signed with an agent.

He chatted with us after a long day at school

During our interview, Max carries the laptop around his studio. "I want to show her my weaving," he tells his mother.

The camera tilts to show a small rainbow weaving on a wall by some paintings of faces. "This is all my art," he says.

Max also has a "secret closet" he wants to show. It's lined with cardboard, fairy lights, and cushions and has a trunk full of special pieces of fabric and a necklace someone sent him.

Max says it takes about a week to make a dress from scratch, and he knows it's finished "when it looks good." He makes clothing for children and adults. He says he doesn't find the clothes particularly difficult to put together, though his sewing machine does thread the needles for him.

Max's little brother, Dorian, is his assistant when he's working. He calls his mom, who helps him pin his creations at the beginning of his process, "the manager."

Dorian, who's 4, is keen to learn how to sew like his big brother. "I wouldn't let either of them sew until they were 4," Madison said.

Celebrities have been reaching out for commissions

There's a faux fur coat on a mannequin in the studio — a commission for a celebrity who can't be named.

Madison said that while hundreds of people have requested dresses from Max, she leaves it up to Max which commissions to take. Sometimes someone like his friend Sydney, who got a special dress made by Max for her birthday, will win out over a celebrity.

Madison says Max follows his instincts for what to make next.

Max says he had a dream a few nights ago about swimming in fabric. When he woke up, a surprise delivery of some gorgeous bolts of fabric had arrived at the house. Madison says people often see his love of sewing and send him materials and equipment. He may have started off with a single cardboard mannequin, but now he has several professional-dressmaker mannequins.

People are touched by his story, which goes back further than his six years. Max's great-grandfather was a cutter in Russia, and his grandfather had a dress business in Montreal. His grandfather died in September 2019, about a year before Max started making dresses.

"He would've been the proudest," Madison said. "He would've just been beside himself."