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Mar 16, 2008 · After the Lord Chamberlain's announcement that curtseys would be ceasing after 1958, there was a record number of applications for the final presentations, like a wave of panic buying.
A curtsy (also spelled curtsey or incorrectly as courtsey) is a traditional gendered gesture of greeting, in which a girl or woman bends her knees while bowing her head. In Western culture it is the feminine equivalent of bowing by males.
Nov 1, 2006 · After coming out in 1958 – the last real deb’ year, the last time girls actually curtseyed to the Queen rather than a giant cake in a Park Lane hotel – she studied English at Oxford, and went on to join that hotbed of wild and dangerous ideas, The Guardian, as a kind of Swinging Sixties correspondent, interviewing difficult metropolitan ...
Jul 7, 2011 · But in 1958 this ritual was coming to an end. Under pressure to shine - not least from their mothers - the girls became the focus for newspaper diarists and society photographers in a party season that stretched for months among the great houses of England, Ireland and Scotland.
- Fiona MacCarthy
- What Did Debutantes Wear?
- When Was The First Debutante Ball?
- Who Could Become A Debutante?
- Debutantes Around The World
- Do We Still Have Debutante Balls Today?
MacCarthy recalled that: “Preparations for the Season had gone on for several months before the presentations.” Debutantes spent a few months in a finishing school prior to their presentation, learning a foreign language and perfecting their dancing, deportment and the all-important royal curtsey. A new wardrobe was essential. MacCarthy recalled th...
The presentation of aristocratic young women to the monarch at the English court is a tradition that dates from at least the reign of Elizabeth I(1558–1603), who chose her ladies-in-waiting from prominent families. The structure of the social season that endured until 1958, however, emerged in the reign of King George III in response to the changin...
The social background of the debutantes presented at the British court slowly began to expand during the reign of Queen Victoria. An 1859 etiquette manual by James Hogg, The Habits of Good Society, stated that in addition to members of the aristocracy: “The wives and daughters of the clergy, of military and naval officers, of physicians and barrist...
The practice of elite young women entering society through a formal debutante presentation soon spread around the world. In the wider British empire, debutantes were presented to the Viceroy, Governor, or, after the Dominions achieved self-government, the Governor General. In Canada, Governor Lord Elgin held a levee in Bytown (now Ottawa) in 1853 w...
In recent decades, there has been a revival of interest in the presentation of debutantes. Historical dramas including Downton Abbey and Bridgerton have depicted wealthy young women making their debut in society in the presence of members of the royal family. The Queen Charlotte’s Ball was revived in the 21st century by former debutante Jenny Halla...
The prime minister's curtsy has been attracting some attention for its impressive depth. She's performed the gesture for members of the Royal Family before, but it was the particularly deep...
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Jan 5, 2006 · MacCarthy herself was one of the last débutantes to be presented to the Queen, and in this book she traces both the history of the custom and what happened to those women in 1958, what futures they carved out for themselves.
