A L I T T L E H I S TO RY of the D E B U TA N T E David Patrick Columbia
IF YOU WERE BORN ANY TIME
in the last century, it was easy to
see debutantes as rich girls in their late teens got up in glamorous gowns and being given a big parties once a year, very often around the Christmas vacation or school holiday time. Photographed and written about in the daily papers— escorted in what looked like marching formation by young men wearing white tie and tails, sometimes one of those girls got so much press that she became a celebrity. Sometimes she even became a fairy-tale princess, like Cinderella. And sometimes her fairy tale was about a wayward heiress. The tradition of the debutante is not a twentieth-century phenomenon in the West. It is an ancient and tribal custom, dating back further than the fourteen-year-old Cleopatra being prepared to take the throne of Egypt. It was a rite of passage, a ritual with a specific and practical use—finding husbands— and it had a lot riding on it. Those who didn’t succeed often became governesses or nuns. Or spinsters. O P P O S I T E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci. A B O V E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci.
© 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
The objective has always been the same: matchmaking. By the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the rich Europeans “civilized” the process by presenting the young lady to “society” in a decorous fashion that nonetheless was as clearly intended as if she were put on a sales block and sold to the highest bidder.
© 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
A L I T T L E H I S TO RY of the D E B U TA N T E David Patrick Columbia
IF YOU WERE BORN ANY TIME
in the last century, it was easy to
see debutantes as rich girls in their late teens got up in glamorous gowns and being given a big parties once a year, very often around the Christmas vacation or school holiday time. Photographed and written about in the daily papers— escorted in what looked like marching formation by young men wearing white tie and tails, sometimes one of those girls got so much press that she became a celebrity. Sometimes she even became a fairy-tale princess, like Cinderella. And sometimes her fairy tale was about a wayward heiress. The tradition of the debutante is not a twentieth-century phenomenon in the West. It is an ancient and tribal custom, dating back further than the fourteen-year-old Cleopatra being prepared to take the throne of Egypt. It was a rite of passage, a ritual with a specific and practical use—finding husbands— and it had a lot riding on it. Those who didn’t succeed often became governesses or nuns. Or spinsters. O P P O S I T E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci. A B O V E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci.
© 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
The objective has always been the same: matchmaking. By the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the rich Europeans “civilized” the process by presenting the young lady to “society” in a decorous fashion that nonetheless was as clearly intended as if she were put on a sales block and sold to the highest bidder.
© 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
© 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
A L I T T L E H I S T O R Y O F T H E D E B U T A N T E ! 25 © 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
© 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
A L I T T L E H I S T O R Y O F T H E D E B U T A N T E ! 25 © 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
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G L A M O U R , G L I T T E R , A N D T H E D R E S S ! 35 © 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
A B O V E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci. O P P O S I T E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci.
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G L A M O U R , G L I T T E R , A N D T H E D R E S S ! 39 © 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
A B O V E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci. O P P O S I T E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci.
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G L A M O U R , G L I T T E R , A N D T H E D R E S S ! 39 © 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
L E F T
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci. O P P O S I T E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci.
40! D E B U T A N T E S © 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
G L A M O U R , G L I T T E R , A N D T H E D R E S S ! 41 © 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
L E F T
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci. O P P O S I T E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci.
40! D E B U T A N T E S © 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
G L A M O U R , G L I T T E R , A N D T H E D R E S S ! 41 © 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
A B O V E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci. O P P O S I T E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci. FOLLOWING SPREAD
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci.
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G L A M O U R , G L I T T E R , A N D T H E D R E S S ! 45 © 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
A B O V E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci. O P P O S I T E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci. FOLLOWING SPREAD
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci.
44! D E B U T A N T E S © 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
G L A M O U R , G L I T T E R , A N D T H E D R E S S ! 45 © 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
A B O V E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci. O P P O S I T E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci.
© 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
S U M M E R S O I R E E S ! 117 © 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
A B O V E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci. O P P O S I T E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci.
© 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
S U M M E R S O I R E E S ! 117 © 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
A B O V E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci. R I G H T
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci.
124! D E B U T A N T E S © 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
D E M U R E " & L E G A N T ! 125 © 2013 Rizzoli International Publications.E All Rights Reserved.
A B O V E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci. R I G H T
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci.
124! D E B U T A N T E S © 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
D E M U R E " & L E G A N T ! 125 © 2013 Rizzoli International Publications.E All Rights Reserved.
A B O V E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci. O P P O S I T E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci.
40! D E B U T A N T E S © 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
© 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
A B O V E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci. O P P O S I T E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci.
40! D E B U T A N T E S © 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
© 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
A B O V E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci. O P P O S I T E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci.
58! D E B U T A N T E S © 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
C E L E B U T A N T E S ! 59 © 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
A B O V E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci. O P P O S I T E
Caption coratec totatur destio hicimenis erior mod mos eossum dolla con earci.
58! D E B U T A N T E S © 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.
C E L E B U T A N T E S ! 59 © 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All Rights Reserved.