Fashionable Norland graduate designed her $1,600 dress, ended up in pandemic, not prom

They say you should dress for the job you want.

Well, Trenisha Maxwell wants to be a lot of things: lawyer, fashion icon, mall tycoon, airline magnate.

Right now, her job is to graduate from Miami Norland Senior High, and she is doing that a year early, at just barely 17, to get a head start on her future careers.

So how does one dress to be Trenisha Maxwell? By designing her own $1,600 custom-made gown. Because only Trenisha can be Trenisha.

“My dress is custom made because I don’t like looking like everybody else. I really hate that,” she said. “I want to be unique, I want to stand out.”

She would have succeeded in her electric blue, Rio-inspired mermaid ball gown. Just one sheer sleeve is adorned with lace and beaded florals. She wanted feathers but settled for gold fringes. Tulle and more sequins explode under her hips. Complete, of course, with more tulle for a train.

“It’s not every day you get to go out in a big poofy dress or have an excuse to do stuff like that,” Trenisha said. “This was everything for me. Prom was everything for me.”

Who knows when she’ll get to wear it. Coronavirus canceled prom.

She wanted curly hair extensions. A hotel to get ready in. A Tesla to rent. Her makeup appointment was booked. A $250 deposit for a photographer to take pictures of her getting ready the night of, now gone.

Gone too is her widowed mother’s chance to see her only daughter walk across the graduation stage. Michelle Maxwell spoiled Trenisha, paying in advance for all the trappings she never got the chance to experience back in Guyana, where Trenisha was born.

“I’m really proud of her. Being such a strong-headed, inspired, brilliant smart lady. Going through all she’s gone through, losing her dad,” her mother said. “It’s hard, because she’s a very emotional person, and I know it was really hard on her.

“At least she has life and strength and can keep pushing forward.”

At first, Trenisha couldn’t think about it without crying. It stings when the Class of 2019 posts throwback photos on social media, and it’ll “suck” to see the Class of 2021 doing all the things her class couldn’t do.

Michelle Maxwell adapted as best she could, throwing a socially distanced, drive-by birthday and graduation party for Trenisha, who revealed then that she’s off to Barry University in the fall. Trenisha called it one of her best birthday parties ever.

“I wish that this didn’t happen,” Trenisha said. “But it has been happening, I’ve actually had fun. I think it has brought me and other people closer together. ... It would’ve been nice to have this stuff. But the stuff [that] has come out of this has been even greater.”

This story was originally published June 3, 2020 at 6:00 AM.