The 1.75m 19-year-old has shot to model stardom after approaching Aliana McDaniel Models, in Dunedin, seeking to earn extra pocket money.
Ms Maxwell was then in her first year of a psychology degree at the University of Otago and living at University College.
Aliana McDaniel was won over by the leggy blonde with shoulder-length hair and advised her to head to Auckland to get a test shoot of photos.
From there, things moved quickly.
She was signed by Michael Hooker International, which helped her secure an agency in Paris, and two weeks later she left for France.
Paris agency Viva cut her hair to a short, funky look and signed her for European fashion weeks.
Ms Maxwell has since shot a lookbook for Alexander McQueen, a fragrance campaign for Mango in Spain and has featured in Italian Vogue, German Vogue, French Elle and Glamour, and in Harpers Bazaar in the United States.
She makes her British Vogue debut in September in a feature depicting her with four other potential supermodels and five former supermodels.
Ms Maxwell was born in Belgium to British parents and was 11 when she came to Wellington, where she attended Queen Margaret College.
Her father is a European Union diplomat now back in the UK, but New Zealand is still home for her.
Ms Maxwell, who is in Auckland for a couple of weeks, said she would like to return to Dunedin in the future if there was work for her.
For now, she is concentrating on her fledgling overseas career.
"It's fun. It's a really cool job."
