The event began with an opening dance, then the “debutantes lined up for a waltz with their fathers” before being “passed on to their cavaliers”. “Family and other guests sat at tables in golden chairs and took it all in, as the chandelier ceiling dripped with decadence.”
Those sentences were written not in the 18th century but earlier this week, when Vogue reported on an event in Paris that one may consider, on the strength of the jewels on display alone, had just a whiff of the ancien régime.
The event was Le Bal des Débutantes, an annual invitation-only gathering at which 20 or so well-born young women from around the world are dressed in haute couture, adorned with gems and paired with a hand-picked “chevalier”, to appear at “a modern debutante ball that places emphasis on individuality and sartorial self-expression”.
This year’s event attracted particular publicity thanks to the presence of Apple Martin, the 20-year-old daughter of Coldplay’s Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow. She wore a “stunning, silk plissé chiffon baby blue gown with a big black bow by Alessandro Michele for Valentino, which took 750 hours to create”. Although “partnered with her cavalier Leo Cosima Henckel von Donnersmarck”, she also managed to fit in an awkward waltz with her beaming father.
Martin’s views on the event were not recorded, but fellow debutante Sophie Kodjoe, the daughter of the And Just Like That … actor Nicole Ari Parker, told the magazine she had taken part because: “I wanted to honour the tradition of being a debutante … I think its history is rooted in sending young women off to the world to be married, but in this case, it showcases how individual all of the women participating are and how diverse and creative everyone is.”
The very wealthy, it is clear, do not live like everyone else (and having wealthy, famous parents is an explicit requirement to be invited). But this is not the Regency period and young women do not need to make their “social debut” by “coming out”.
But, evidently, there is still a taste for it. New York has hosted an International Debutante Ball since 1954. In London, Queen Charlotte’s ball was revived by an organisation called “the London Season” in the 21st century. In fact, while grand balls putting young women on display may have a long history, today’s debs’ balls do not have terribly long pedigrees. The Bal des Débutantes, known until 2012 as the Crillon ball, is the creation of Ophélie Renouard, who hit on the idea as a young PR working for the Hôtel de Crillon in the early 90s.
“My main profession was to organise luxury events that provide media attention and coverage,” she has said. Expensively dressed young women may attract the cameras as well as charity donations from their wealthy parents, but it is arguably the couturiers who are the stars of the Bal. They are carefully matched with debutantes by Renouard and her team – although the debs do get some input, says Laura Sutcliffe, the fashion and beauty editor at Hello!, which also covered the event.
“I know it sounds silly, but they select their own dresses. They know [their style], they know how they want to be presented. So I think in that sense, it might seem to some a little bit dated. But I think in a world where everything is so fast paced, it’s just so different, and it’s something that they would never get a chance to do normally.”
The formal presentation of eligible young women to the English court can be traced to the reign of at least Elizabeth I, but reached its zenith under Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III (extremely loosely fictionalised in Netflix’s Bridgerton). It remained the high point of the London social season from the 18th century onwards and was emulated across the empire.
By the 20th century, though, the balls seemed hopelessly dated even to the women themselves, and in 1958 Elizabeth II ended the practice (“We had to put a stop to it,” Princess Margaret reportedly said. “Every tart in London was getting in.”)
The most puzzling question, perhaps, is why today’s young, solvent and unquestionably powerful young women would possibly want to take part. To Renouard, the answer is simple: taking part offers them something that, ironically, money can’t buy.
“The girls are beautiful and look and feel like princesses for a night,” she has said. “And Paris is, well, Paris. Modern life is not so filled with glamour but at the Bal, glamour and romance are everything. I think that is why everybody loves it so much – it gives them an experience they cannot find elsewhere.”
