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At an age when most kids are figuring out homework and hobbies, Max Alexander is busy making fashion history.
The 10-year-old designer has become the youngest person ever to showcase a collection at Paris Fashion Week, presenting his women’s ready-to-wear Fall/Winter 2026–2027 line earlier this month.
Max’s show took place on March 3 at the grand Palais Garnier in Paris, just days after he turned 10. According to multiple publications, including CBS LA and Vogue France, that makes him the youngest designer to ever present a collection at the French capital’s famed fashion week.
It’s a remarkable achievement for someone who still has primary school to worry about.
Max, a fourth-grader, began sewing and designing when he was just four years old and has steadily built a reputation as a dressmaking prodigy. His Instagram handle, ‘couture.to.the.max’ speaks for itself.
His Paris showcase featured a sustainable collection of 15 looks inspired by florals, reported People. The young designer said around 90 per cent of the pieces were made from sustainable materials, including deadstock fabric, surplus textiles, recycled bags and biodegradable materials.
The collection also featured creative reuse of unusual materials, including a corseted gown crafted from a French military parachute and a vintage sari that Max redesigned.
“I am happy I got to show the world my designs,” he said, adding that he hopes his work encourages people to rethink fast fashion. “Maybe [it will] encourage people to think about reuse and not buying so much fast fashion.”
Max made his debut at New York Fashion Week in 2024 when he was just eight. He also holds a Guinness World Record for being the youngest person to design a runway show at age seven on November 18, 2023.
During an interview in 2023, he jokingly told People he believed he might have been Guccio Gucci — the founder of Gucci — in a past life. “I actually was,” he said at the time.
By then, Max had already created more than a hundred designs, sold pieces internationally, staged his own fashion shows and even made a custom piece for actor Sharon Stone.
His mother, Sherri Madison, previously told the outlet that her son’s dedication to fashion was evident early on. “He’s just so committed to it, and he has so much fun. It’s truly his happy place, his studio, and even just playing with the material,” she said, recalling how the family initially thought the interest might just be a passing phase.
“For the first year or two, we said, ‘Well, tomorrow he’s going to be a cook.’ But it just stuck.” For Madison, her son’s achievements on the runway are only part of the story.
“It’s his golden heart,” she said. “Everything he does is with the intent of making people happy. His whole goal with these dresses is to make people feel beautiful — he says it all the time.”
Cover photo: AFP via Getty