The Debutante's Ball

The Debutante ball is the highlight of the social season for those young women (and men) who had recently come of age and were to be presented before the nobility of court. Many months are spent preparing for the yearly event along with much wailing and gnashing of teeth as the prospective ladies agonise over choices between styles, colours, possible partners and dancing ability.

The Season before and the Spring Season sees the Seamstresses and Tailors fully worked for the duration with so much work for all the associated parties and events.

Young Ladies must be from an aristocratic or upper class family who has reached the age of maturity and it generally meant that the young woman was eligible for marriage, and part of the purpose was to display her to eligible bachelors and their families with a view to marriage within a select upper class circles.

Only ladies who had already been presented were entitled to present another lady, which ensured the social exclusivity of the privilege. Most women were presented by their own mothers, but this would not be possible if their own mother had not been presented, or was dead or absent from Court for any other reason. Hence, it was possible to be presented, instead, by another eligible woman, provided she personally knew and could vouch for the lady being presented. As well as debutantes, properly so-called 'older women' and married women who had not previously been presented could be presented at Court. A mother-in-law might, for example, present her new daughter-in-law.

The presentation, to the court, followed an elaborate ritual and the debutante was required to wear distinctive formal Court dress. In particular, they were required either to carry feathers (usually in the form of an ostrich feather fan), or to wear feathers as part of their headdress