Teen Wears Prom Dress Honoring Trayvon Martin and The Black Lives Matter Movement
Milan Morris talks to us about her prom dress that features images of Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, and more
It’s prom season! And as one Florida teen showed, great style can also have a great message.
Seventeen-year-old Milan Morris’ prom dress is gorgeous. But her outfit is getting particular attention because of the Black Lives Matter message it conveyed.
Morris’ floor-length gown, designed by Florida-based Terrance Torrence, featured black and white images of Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, and more of the lives we have lost in recent years to police brutality. She shared a photo of the dress on Instagram. And from her caption, she is utterly unapologetic for it! YES!
“Yes I’m Black. Yes I’m 17. Yes GOD is using me to convey a message that’s bigger than me,” she captioned a photo of the demure dress, which she complemented with black lace.
Torrence, a West Palm Beach based designer who also works in Miami and Atlanta, was the dressmaker who brought the whole look together, Morris told ESSENCE.com.
“He was the mastermind behind this whole thing honestly,” said Morris adding that Torrence’s “message is a huge issue in America today.”
Torrence, who is knee-deep in designing for prom season, told ESSENCE.com that he knew he wanted to create a dress inspired by Black Lives Matter last year, but it all finally came together in 2017. The dress took four days to make.
“It was powerful,” Torrence said of finishing the dress. “It was art. It was surreal. It spoke volumes.”
He added: “It was powerful and a movement and I knew people would respond to it.”
And respond they have!
As for Morris, the Palm Beach senior is also a basketball star at Cardinal Newman High School, having been recently recognized as an “all-area player” by the Palm Beach Post. She will be taking her talents to Boston College this fall.
What do you think of Milan’s dress?