Boy, 7, Who Says He Was Gucci in a Past Life, Goes Viral for His Impressive Work as a Dressmaker

While most first graders couldn’t name the founder of Gucci — let alone know anything about him — 7-year-old Max Alexander believes he has a deep connection to the famous designer.

Max, a tailoring prodigy who has been designing and creating clothes since he was 4, tells PEOPLE that he was Gucci in a past life. “Actually I did,” he says confidently.

Max and his mom, Sherri Madison, recently spoke with PEOPLE about Max’s impressive tailoring business, which includes getting commissions from celebrities and selling his clothes all over the world.

Madison says she didn’t discover Max’s design skills at first and only noticed his talent when he announced at age 4 that he was interested in tailoring.

“I didn’t notice. He told us. We were at dinner during the lockdown, and he just literally announced, ‘I need a doll,'” she recalls. “He was very serious. No laughing. I said, ‘Okay, I never saw you being interested in fashion. What are you talking about?’ He said, ‘That’s because I don’t have a doll. If you get me a doll, I’ll show it to you. I am a tailor.’ ”

Max’s work took off soon after when Madison, who works as a cardboard artist, made him his first cardboard doll.

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“He just started making dresses, it was the craziest thing,” she continues. “I ran and grabbed my husband. I said, ‘Get out of your office, you have to see what Max is doing. It’s crazy.’ ”

Although Max began tailoring with no experience or exposure to fashion, Madison later realized that fashion was actually in his genes. “It turns out his grandparents were in the fashion business in Montreal. My grandparents and my mom were seamstresses, but Max didn’t know any of that, it came out of nowhere.”

Madison, who is also a mother of two, says Max “started begging to learn to sew after maybe half a dozen dresses.”

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“I thought he was too young because he was only 4 years old, but I took out my machine, sat him on my lap and said, ‘Don’t touch anything, just look at me.’ It was probably two weeks before he got up,” she recalls. “He sewed very, very quickly. Soon after, he surpassed my skills, so I took him to a local sewing shop. They really taught him a lot.”

As for the design, dressing and other aspects of his tailoring, Madison says Max picked it all up himself. “It was all trial and error from day one, because I don’t know how to do it. He just kind of worked that part out on his own.”

While many kids often change their interests, Madison says Max’s dedication to design is what continues to impress her.

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“He’s so committed to it and he’s having so much fun. It’s really his happy place, his studio, and even just playing with the material,” she says. “For the first year or two, we said: ‘Well, tomorrow he will be a chef.’ But it just stuck.”

“That’s the unusual thing that impresses me, and that’s the dedication of such a young child and his genuine passion to make people feel beautiful, which he’s been telling us since he was 4 years old.”

“He wants women to feel beautiful and that’s a boost,” she adds. “He’s never expressed any interest in wearing dresses himself. He doesn’t make menswear. He really wants women of all sizes to feel beautiful.”

In just a few years, Max has already created more than a hundred designs, sold his works abroad, held his own fashion shows and even commissioned a jacket for Sharon Stone.

Courtesy of Sherri Madison

And he still has big dreams ahead of him. “He wants to be the head of Gucci or he wants to have his own atelier, Couture to the Max Italian,” says Madison.

For other kids who would like to get into design, Max says they should remember, “Practice makes perfect.”

And while Max continues to practice and show off his talents, Madison says it’s not “the talent or learning to sew that I’m proud of.”

“It’s his heart of gold,” she says. “Everything he does is with the intention of making people happy. His whole goal with these dresses is to make people feel beautiful, he says that all the time.”

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Source: HIS Education