7-year-old fashionista who says he was Gucci in a past life is already selling dresses to celebrities

Most of us dream up glamorous careers as kids but very few actually pursue them and make it real. A 7-year-old, Max Alexander, has found his calling in dressmaking. Not only that, he even claims that he is connected to the founder of Gucci in his past life. "I actually was," he said with utmost confidence. Max and his mom Sherri Madison told PEOPLE that the 7-year-old received commissions from celebrities and has even sold his clothes across the world. Max's mom never noticed this talent in him till he was 4 years old. 

"I didn't notice. He told us. We were at dinner during the lockdown, and he just literally announced, 'I need a mannequin,'" she recalls. "He was very serious. No laughing. I was like, 'Okay, I've never seen you interested in fashion. What are you talking about?' He said, 'That's because I don't have a mannequin. If you get me a mannequin, I'll show you. I'm a dressmaker.'"

At this time, his mother, Sherri Madison, made a mannequin for him out of cardboard. "He just started making dresses, it was the craziest thing," she continued. "I ran and got my husband. I was like, 'Come out of your office, you have to see what Max is doing. It's crazy.'" Madison later realized that fashion runs in his genes, "It turns out his grandparents were in the fashion business in Montreal. My grandparents and my mom were all sewists, but Max didn't know any of that, it came out of nowhere."

Madison also has two other children and for Max, she said, he "started begging to learn how to sew after maybe half a dozen dresses." "I thought he was too young because he's only 4, but I got out my machine, and I sat him on my lap, and said, 'Don't touch anything, just watch me.' It was probably two weeks before he was standing," she recalled. "He was sewing very, very quickly. Quickly after that, he surpassed my skills, so I put him in a class at a local sewing shop. They really taught him a lot."

"It's all been trial and error from day one because I don't know how to do that. He's just worked that part out himself somehow." While kids change their interests at this age, Max has remained consistent, "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 says. "For the first year or two, we said, 'Well, tomorrow he's going to be a cook.' But it just stuck."

"That's really the unusual part that impresses me, is the commitment for such a very young child, and his true passion to want to make people feel beautiful, which he has told us since he was 4." "He wants women to feel beautiful and that's the drive behind it," she added. "He's never expressed any interest in wearing the dresses himself. He doesn't make men's wear. He really wants women of all sizes to feel beautiful."

Max has sold his work internationally, held his fashion shows and even commissioned a jacket for actress Sharon Stone. But he has bigger dreams, "He wants to be the head of the house of Gucci or he wants to have his own atelier, Couture to the Max Italian," says Madison. "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."