LUFKIN, Texas (KTRE) – Axel is a 20-year-old fashion designer with autism taking his broccoli theme to the Big Apple.
For the past three years he has designed clothes to showcase in New York Fashion Week. Last year his theme was bugs and this year his theme is broccoli, his favorite vegetable.
Axel took an interest in arts and crafts three years ago and his mother started putting his work on shirts. People around Lufkin took notice and would order shirts from him.
In 2023, a fashion designer took notice and invited him to help with her show during New York Fashion Week. This will be his second year he is putting on his own show. His mother, Majal Minguez, explains Axel’s journey.
“So we found out that Axel has autism when he was about five years old,” Minguez said. “Symptoms were like just delay in speech and just a lot of sensory issues. My husband gifted me a Cricut machine for Christmas and I was doing this kind of not really super intricate, but, like, I’m doing a project. And then Axel was looking at me struggling, like weeding through this, vinyl project. And he looked and he said, ‘mommy, Axel can do it. Axel can do it.’ And I said, ‘no, Axel, this is hard.’ He said, ‘Axel can do it.’ And I said, ‘okay, you do it.’ And when he started, it’s like second nature to him. I guess it’s like autism brain, that attention to detail, you know, that skill. He was so focused and just like he is so into it and I’m like, ‘oh my gosh, this is awesome.’”
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