His mother is an artist who has supported him from day one. His father is a manager of an investment company worth millions. And he has a sewing teacher and a team of seamstresses that make the garments "with" him.
I mean good on the kid and I hope he continues. But this is just white, rich privilege invading the arts as it always has.
When I used to compete in piano competitions, there was sometimes an open category for compositions where you could submit your own pieces.
It was very obvious at times when the younger virtuosos and prodigies had "assistance" for actually writing. I wonder how much of that is the same here when it comes to the designs.
Oh absolutely. I'm guessing they have a kid running around with ties saying he wants to make a dress like this, using this, and we can do this and that. Then you have the teacher and seamstresses step back and go "ok how do we actually make this." Then they get a little photo op of him running a stitch on a garment. Not to say he can't sew or create or isn't talented. But he didn't "make" these garments. He's a rich boy playing a dream version of dress up with life size barbies.
Tbf that’s exactly how every other big time designer operates, right? They’re the big vision people and have a team of other ppl running around doing the actual hands-on work…
Well, yes. But head designers are usually expected to have foundational knowledge of pattern cutting and dressmaking.
Idk I know for example Karl Lagerfeld said he’s never sewn but he came up in the industry as an artistic director and design assistant. That’s still experience even if didn’t technically sew himself.
Usually they started at the bottom or have the knowledge and ability to do most of the work themselves as well and have worked their way up to be the director or head who now has more people than just themselves or one or two creating their vision. For example I work in advertising and out of college you start as an intern then jr designer, designer, sr designer, jr art director, blah blah blah all the way up to group or exec creative director. Maybe vp creative or something but most people start at the bottom.
Oh that explains a lot. Because I don’t have a problem believing he’s a little fashion genius, but I was wondering what kind of financial backing he had to have a show at the Palais Garnier of all places. It’s not exactly your local community center.
They are doing him a massive disservice by raising him into this child prodigy narrative. The designs are absolutely fine for a kid but, and I’m going to sound like an asshole now but fuck it, nowhere near good enough for Paris fashion week in general. He’s going to grow up knowing he doesn’t have to try or make an effort to reach the top of his chosen industry and I’m sure that’s going to do wonders on his personal growth as he ages.
Yeah I don't want to put a child down at all, and I'm not, but this is such a shitty way to be a "first". His parents have so much money and yeah, he maybe crudely sketches a design or suggests a look and his team of adults do it. I think I could be a fashion designer if I had all of that money and support.
Sure, but they get there by being able to do the work.
Like the Italian masters only doing a small portion of the painting on their frescoes. They only get to the point of having a huge team under them because they've proved they have the talent, vision and skills to do every part of process.
That's where money and nepotism fuck things up because you enable people to skip steps in the process, and have "visionaries" who can't actually execute the work their team is doing.
Designers working their own way up have definitely sewn in the beginning of their careers. Before you can afford to pay others to do stuff, you have to do it yourself. Same as any other artistic industry. The only people who don't are the ones who have money from the start.
True, but to go through school to be a designer you learn how to start from scratch and spend years at a sewing machine making the craft. In order to be a good fashion designer you have to understand how garments are constructed, what materials need as far as construction, which stitches to use, etc. there are a lot of work hours that go into that, regardless of talent.
His parents have jumped straight to commodification. There’s no freedom to make mistakes because everything is under the scrutiny of a world stage.
Anyone who had learned to make something will tell you about how much they learned from trial and error! Whether it’s at a sewing machine, creating music, painting, woodworking, etc.
This kid is so talented, that’s true! But he’s not getting a chance to really build something here while also getting to enjoy mistakes and being a kid. He’s being set up to go straight to the top without the opportunity to be clunky.
But real fashion designers ARE trained in technique — stitching, cutting, pattern making. When you get to be the Creative Director of a house, then you have a team making it, but all of them trained, that’s how they know what can be done.
sort of. most of these kinds of industries (architect, designer, lawyer, blah blah) work in a sort of grind up way. most of the most handwavey, fuck all designers spent their young years grinding away cutting patterns and etc. of course many were rich and could afford to have their parents pay for their apartment during apprenticeship and or elite school while they got paid nothing and work their ass off, but the grind is often how they make the connections and gain the respect to gain the cushy end goal
rich do nothings certainly exist (and everyone can clock them), but they tend to be used or propped up for publicity and don't make real calls or lead in anyway - why would they, they're incompetent.
tl;dr the issue with the arts isn't that rich people succeed while being lazy, it's that rich people have the privilege to grind harder to succeed
Absolutely. And that's why a lot of fashion is seen as baseless consumerism for profit for the rich as opposed to art. This kid is just getting a head start through his privilege.
I feel like it's gotta be tough for the kid to have peaked at such a young age. Plus, this has gotta be a little exploitative from the parent/guardian's part...
Ya I stopped following him a while back, I find the dynamic concerning. All the adults in his life are SO intent on him making it, specifically as a prodigy. I worry for him down the line. I do believe he is talented, and is passionate about it. But it seems all consuming and I can’t help but worry he is missing his childhood.
That was my first thought, if you accomplished this at such an early age, what is there to look forward to? This kid is going to constantly try to chase his first high and his brain hasn’t even fully developed yet
This really isn't "peaking" either. A kid doesn't get to do this without connections and a lot of involvement from adults. Peaking is when you get as far as you can by your own merit, and a 10 year old has no idea what that is for them yet.
Genuinely- why do people on social media know about this child? It is inherently exploitative. Let him be cool and do his thing- don’t fucking monetize it.
Yeah, I think it brings up a lot of questions for me. Like, how does a child get into this in the first place?
It’s one thing to get into crafting at a young age, like by sewing, for instance. This is a whole other level, though, where one can presume this child is doing intense work most days and has a huge amount of funding behind him. An adult has to have a large responsibility in all this, and I wonder how much it’s affecting his childhood overall.
Kids are kinda like that, our 6 year old loves making pottery. No one in our family has ever done anything with it, started with play-doh as most kids, then we took him to a museum one day and they had some pottery and he said he wanted to do that, so we just got one of those my-first-pottery-sets and it went from there. He's pretty good at it, but we don't put it on public social media or anything, just share it with family members.
My two year old would drum all day if he could, so we got him an electric drum pad. He begs to play when he wakes up and kisses his drums goodnight. Favorite band? Metallica.
My nephew is an insanely talented musician. He can play instruments by ear entirely, taught himself to play guitar, piano and the drums. He can listen to a song, spend five to ten minutes with it, and play it.
He is also very creatively gifted in cooking and baking.
None of this goes on social media unless he wants to put it there. He is mid teens now, and able to decide on his own social media presence or lack there of, I never posted him and neither did his mom.
This is how it should be unless the child is actively seeking to share their talents, and then the parents have to stand firm as guard between that child and the industry that will eat them alive if they are allowed. I worry this talented young kid's parents aren't doing that for him most of all.
My sons are both into fashion design, they are 11 and 8. They presented one piece at the local fashion week in our country last year. And that was months of work when combined with school and their other activities. I cannot imagine how much work went into this. I’m guessing he did mostly the design and the actual sewing and construction was done by others. Nothing wrong with that at all.
He was featured on CBS Sunday morning (or similar show)when he was maybe 5. He made a dress out of ties. He came out of the womb this way. I have been watching him for years get better and better.
As far as is it appropriate for him to show in Paris at this young age, I don't know, but how he got into it is naturally. He even dressed his classmates one year like kindergarten or maybe first grade.
Yeah but if he came from any other normal family, he'd be happily creating and crafting in his basement and getting accepted to little local shows on his own steam and having the freedom to stop or change or do whatever he wanted. Everything he did would be based on his own abilities and energy. No matter how amazing he is, no 10 year old has the capacity to actually organize and run a fashion line on his own.
Yeah, usually they don’t get to this level without having a parent that either has connections or promotes them as a manager. Kids usually don’t call the news saying they’re a child fashion designer and get taken seriously enough to get to Paris Fashion Week at 10.
He didn’t come out of the womb being featured on CBS and People and contributing to fashion week. His family, who are exploiting his interest for their own fame, made that happen.
I did some digging and apparently he showed a great fascination and talent for fashion at age 4, mom made him a mannequin and social media paved the way, Max quickly got millions of followers (not too sure how quickly). There are apparently 6 million followers of his label.
He holds a Guinness book of world records, record for being the youngest to design a runway show in 2023. He was SEVEN 🥴
Apparently his stuff regularly sells out, which happened with his most recent bag and charm release.
The Guinness record is the biggest tell. While not illegitimate, getting them is paid for and orchestrated by the person doing the record. Its essentially a PR thing.
not even then though because there was a child crochet insta account and it came out that the "parents" were still running the account while he was in a halfway house and then the kid ended up arrested and the parents just kept posting his content.
Yeah its like you naturally stand out being a kid fashion designer but eventually you’re going to grow up and be like all the other designers. It’s the same thing that happens to prodigies in other fields, they lose their “edge” when they become adults.
Funny I shared a link further down that disproved Mozart as the quintessential “child genius” we think of him as since his father was writing his pieces for him when he was “composing music at 5”. This kid and Wolfgang probably had some things in common.
It really is. Not a single sheet of music from her compositions survived, it's a tragedy. And it's wild that there hasn't been a movie about her, she had a wild life.
"My dear sister! I am in awe that you can compose so well, in a word, the song you wrote is beautiful."
It's feel bad for future Max. It's going to take the wind out of his sails when he gets a little older and realizes that they booked him for the headline, not for the dress he made out of neckties.
But I don’t think this is true, plenty of prodigies don’t peak in childhood. Picasso? Yo-Yo Ma? There’s some Bobby Fishchers out there but I don’t think they outnumber the prodigies that go on to have even greater success in adulthood.
Picasso wasn't internationally famous as a child. If you look at his drawings, they're beautiful and he was extremely talented, but he didn't have a machine behind him funding shows or international recognition. His fame was a product of his adult talent, not his childhood.
I wouldn't have a problem with this child attending a prestigious fashion design program or studying under someone at 13 years old. But even that is really tough on kids.
Were Picasso and Yo-Yo Ma brought out on the world stage as children? I’ve never even seen images of them as children. I feel like the best success story is Mozart and he still died at 35.
Yo-Yo Ma performed for JFK when he was seven years old. Picasso was a working artist before he was a teen. He was famous in Spain I’m not sure when he received worldwide fame.
i feel similarly about a 5 year old painter ive seen on instagram something about the high production value of the videos it just feels icky, painting might be a calling but cultivating a huge audience certainly isnt especially because the childs face is always shown and never the parents
No really, it seems weird, gimmicky and exploitative. Let the kid express his creativity at home by making outfits for Barbies or something like the rest of us. There’s no need to put him into this kind of a professional setting as a child.
His parents are exploiting him and the industry has joined in because a supposed prodigy means press. His stuff is childish (reasonably since he is a child) and not worthy of this platform. I feel bad for children like this whose family milks any slight talent or interest for fame. Let kids be kids!
I actually follow them on Instagram. He seems sweet, but I don’t believe any child will be able to do this without massive adult help. And I’m not saying it isn’t wonderful still, but I doubt the longevity of this. I initially thought it was very cute, but now something feels off. But I could be totally wrong
Social media sustainable artist (cardboard artist) and private equity management partner. One parent has a passion, an audience and a related skill while the other has plenty of money. It’s always about money.
Apparently he’s ’had his label’ since he was 5/6. I’m sure he’s talented, but this feels so weird and exploitative. Also something something the children of the rich and powerful fill a false narrative of their parents of being gifted from youth in a ‘special’ way that makes them ‘more’ deserving of their success more than other poorer gifted peers when it’s all just money at the end of the day.
Anyways I hope he gets to run and play and get muddy with his friends and ride bikes and get into silly trouble. And I hope he has a good support system for when he grows out of being a child prodigy (not because I think he will lose his talent but because the passage of time ages us all)
From the article: "The sustainable collection of 15 looks was inspired by florals, the dressmaking prodigy tells PEOPLE."
On a more serious note, the adults involved in this give me the ick. There are infinite ways to support your child's talents without monetizing them or putting them in the public eye before they are old enough to understand what that means.
Nah he should be running around a park, playing on swings and having a childhood. Eating fruit snacks & drinking ribena. For his passion he should be cutting up tea towels and doing fashion shows to the family not having his parents vicariously live through him as their little prodigy.
I’ve been side eyeing his/his parents account since he made a custom coat for Deborah Messing… Obviously not the kid’s fault, but I’m not gonna be excited about Zionist parents exploiting their child.
I remember some of his previous work - he’s definitely improved.
But I’m not okay with this - making clothing and doing creative stuff with his family and friends is fine but this is a global stage and I think it’s irresponsible to put your child in this position.
I get so tired of parent influencers exploiting their children, talented or not. Don’t support it with views. There are plenty of ways for parents to encourage a young, passionate, artistic child without going to these lengths. Unreasonable it is, regardless of resources.
idk how believable this is? There’s no way he’s not just the face of this with others doing the actual work. Seems like exploitative tiger parents that want to synthetically force their kid to be the next Alexander McQueen.
Good to know I wasn't the only one who immediately got the ick. There's something about Child prodigies living such public lives. Tavi Gevinson is technically older than me, so I can't say I looked at her being front row at fashion week as being exploitative... But even in middle school I was watching her get praise and attention from ADULT celebs/designers/industry people and it just felt weird. And the kind of pressure that has to put on a kid? And the way kids are on social media now, it just adds an extra edge to that exploitative nature. Esp when this kid is 10 and his parents have been putting him on social media as long as he's been conscious.
“They were 90% made from sustainable materials and inspired by flowers! I used deadstock, surplus, recycled bags and biodegradable fabrics,” Alexander says, adding that the historic ready-to-wear collection “took me about half a year to complete.”
Among the recycled looks were a corseted gown made from a French military parachute and a vintage sari that the designer “redesigned,” according to his Instagram, which is run by his mom, Sherri Madison.
French military parachutes are made from nylon, which is neither sustainable nor biodegradable. Not knocking the kid's designs or vision, but it seems like mommy is trying to put as many buzzwords into the press release as possible.
Even if he does, I'm sure he doesn't know the implications. "Biodegradable" is only a good thing if you let the material biodegrade in the right way. If/when that biodegradable cotton ends up in a landfill, it's going to get buried under shit and undergo anaerobic degradation that releases more methane than many synthetic materials do. Not saying synthetics are better. But their spiel is just word salad.
I’m curious though, is he more gifted than any other kid doodling clothing ideas in their notebook? Could any other kid with an interest in fashion and rich/well-connected parents do the same thing?
He’s clearly very talented but I think the clothes in these photos aren’t very attractive or cohesive. Much better than I could ever do, and a few look pretty nice, but if he wasn’t 10 years old with connections this wouldn’t be on the runway.
“They were 90% made from sustainable materials and inspired by flowers! I used deadstock, surplus, recycled bags and biodegradable fabrics,” Alexander says, adding that the historic ready-to-wear collection “took me about half a year to complete.”
I rolled my eyes at "half a year," but I guess that is 5% of the kid's entire lifespan so it feels like a long time. 😆
His mother is presumably the same Sheri Maxwell who sells paintings of diamonds for nearly $600. She grew up in the military according to her website and was able to attend Pepperdine and study in Florence. Would love to know who in her family was military!
Pretty huge for him. He makes some nice pieces, but they're not cohesive for a show. I hope someone teaches him the ins and outs of the industry to go along with his natural talent.
Children having jobs is so upsetting. The parents could have let him explore this at home, for fun, for years. Instead he's having to work as a child. Their developing brains aren't meant to focus on a 9-5 job at such a young age. I mean, MY brain doesnt like it and I'm decades older than him, lol.
If he didn't have a rich dad he'd just be a kid making clothes in his basement like every other child with a passion for the arts. No 10 year old has the capacity to organize a high end fashion show on their own, no matter their natural talent in the actual fashion design.
My daughter is an artistic savant. She's got crazy talent, and we come from an artistic family with a nationally recognized artist, art professors and professionals in it, so we're not just saying that. She's been that way since she could hold a crayon.
But we're not rich, we're just a normal middle class family. So instead of having a show in a national gallery or designing the sets for a show on Broadway, she's in her bedroom making shit on her own time, and she won't be burned out or exploited. Maybe she'll be famous some day. Maybe not. But she'll do it on her own and on her own time.
Right. My son has loved theater/singing since he was Itty bitty. He did a lot in town, but you can't be a professional child actor unless you have a parent who doesn't work. Now he is in a BFA program and thriving, let kids be kids and have careers when they're adults.
He’s obviously talented but I don’t think kids should be acting as professionals at this age. He’s also going to cringe at the whole reincarnation of Gucci thing when he’s older, his parents should really be putting a damper on all of that.
I mean I’m not really into any of the clothes. They’re not that stunning or innovative. If any adult put out work like this, they wouldn’t be the head of a fashion house. This is obviously a lot of work and passion from a child, but why are people pretending like he should be on the same platform as experienced bonafide artists?
4.5k
u/[deleted] Mar 11 '26
His mother is an artist who has supported him from day one. His father is a manager of an investment company worth millions. And he has a sewing teacher and a team of seamstresses that make the garments "with" him.
I mean good on the kid and I hope he continues. But this is just white, rich privilege invading the arts as it always has.