17-year-old Milan Bolden-Morris and family friend Terrence Torrence probably had no clue when they collaborated on her prom dress, their creation would go viral.
Bolden-Morris, a Senior attending Cardinal Newman High School in West Palm Beach, Florida is quite impressive on her own. The senior is committed to Boston College, where she will attend on a full scholarship for basketball.
Designer Terrence Torrence has styled the mega star, Lil’ Kim and has been designing clothes for over 15 years, according to what he told Buzzfeed News. He initially starting to envision the dress a year ago but it took his collaboration with Bolden-Morris to make his vision reality.
This iconic dress only took three days to make and features the faces of Black men, women and teens who have died tragically in the public eye, at the hands of police or under suspicious circumstances. The faces of Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Alton Sterling, Freddie Gray, Michael Brown and many more adorn Bolden-Morris’s dress. In all Torrence estimates there are 15 faces included.
Meaningful 🗣 #prom2k17 pic.twitter.com/vxIWOXa7iO
— Milan Bolden-Morris (@_milan23_) April 22, 2017
In the last week, the dress has been seen all over the internet. Teen Vogue, The Shade Room, BuzzFeed and Yahoo News all did stories on the dress and its bold statement.
I love this dress. It’s gotten mixed reaction across the net. As I am sure you can imagine, the people who have something negative to say look nothing like the designer, the girl in it, nor the people on it. It’s a bold statement for them both to make and the statement was heard loud and clear.
We need more of this. More individual expression of dissatisfaction with status quo. It’s not always about marching, sometimes a silent protest is heard the loudest.
I hear you and thank you.