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1958 est-elle l'année des dernières débutantes?
Are you proficient in the art of the perfect curtsey? Kensington Palace
is currently celebrating the 50th anniversary of the last Court
presentation (1958): This journey into the annual agenda of the British
high society made me wonder if 1958 was really the year of the last
debutantes?
Every year, the prestigious international Bal des Debutantes takes
place at the Hotel Crillon in Paris. Girls from a high society
background are still presented to the world wearing astonishingly
glamourous dresses and, both in France and in the UK, there is still a
“Season” with events high society members have to be seen at… So are
the debutantes really dead? Roll on your gloves and practise your
curtsey, you are about to be given an insight into the secret world of
high society!
In the UK, well-bred girls from the ‘best’ families were traditionally
launched into society at 17 or 18 by curtseying to the young Queen
Elizabeth during the Bal des Débutantes before enjoying a whirlwind of
parties, dinners, lunches, teas and dances in search of the perfect
husband. This was then an inevitable rite of passage into the grown-up
world. Queen Elizabeth decided to end it in 1958 probably because it
was becoming somewhat anachronistic when London was swinging and the
frivolous 60s were already on the horizon. Kensington Palace dedicated
this exhibition to the last ceremony of 1958 as a symbol of changing
times. However, is the art of the curtsey really behind us?
Not in France at least since the French elite copied this British
tradition from 1957 until 1968. Mr Andre Tarbes offered to the French
debutantes the chance of being introduced in the sparkling world
wearing a white dress, gloves and a tiara whether at the Opéra Garnier
or at Versailles; no less. However, even France could hold on to this
elitist tradition when the libertarian wave of May 68 started. It took
a good many years before little princesses were able to attend their
balls again!
In 1991, Ophélie Renouard decided to organise a new Bal des Debutantes
with a cool modern age. Ever since then, every year, the prestigious
Hotel Crillon welcomes 24 of the most beautiful young and/or richest
women from around the world of course, only the most eligible ones.
Ophélie Renouard’s policy of mixing royalty with jet set and rich
businessmen created some curious encounters.
Indeed who could have imagined Bruce Willis’s daughter attending a party with some royal members? Times have changed. There was a time when young girls from aristocratic background were the only ones allowed to take part in such events, wearing virginal white dresses and looking for the perfect husband. Nowadays they wear designer dresses and are modelling for a day in front of photographs and journalists. Debutantes may not be dead but they have clearly evolued and as has their way of life. What now has to be done to sparkle in the high society in France and in the UK? If France has stolen the Bal des Debutantes from the Brits, have French people outstripped them in the art of high society?
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