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A debutante dress is a pure white ball gown, accompanied by
Débutante dresses were almost always short-sleeved and had to have a low neckline. However a doctor's certificate could be presented at the time stating that low cut was injurious to the young woman's health. After a débutante married, if she had married appropriately, she would be re-presented at Court as a married woman, usually wearing her wedding dress with alterations.
Queen Victoria was said to have hated small feathers, so orders were sent out that Her Majesty wished to see the feathers as the young lady approached. Late in Queen Victoria's reign and into the court of Edward VII, the necessary headdress was three feathers arranged in a Prince of Wales plume. A center feather slightly higher than the two on each side worn slightly on the left side of the head.
For young ladies and women to be presented who were in mourning, it was acceptable for their dresses and veils to be black. No matter how cold the weather was on this special day, absolutely no cloaks, shawls, capes, or wraps of any kind were permitted to be worn. Those items remained in the lady's carriage.
A debutante dress is a pure white ball gown, accompanied by long white gloves
Ladies' evening gloves or opera gloves are a type of formal glove that reaches beyond the elbow.
Ladies' gloves for formal and semi-formal wear come in three lengths for women: wrist, elbow, and opera or full-length (over the elbow, usually ...
and pearls
A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle (mollusc), mantle) of a living animal shell, shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pea ...
worn by girls or young women at their debutante cotillion. Debutante cotillions were traditional coming of age
Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can b ...
celebrations for eligible young ladies ready to be presented to society as ready for marriage.
Required rules of dress
A young lady's gown was regulated by a set of meticulously defined rules which were strictly enforced. These rules varied from monarchy to monarchy and didn't always follow the fashion of the time. White was the preferred color for her gown, although soft colors such as ivory or eggshell were acceptable as long as they were over a white background. The headdress always included feathers and a veil although the number and size of the feathers varied with the time. Married women wore a tiara.Georgian era
During the reign of King George III and Queen Charlotte, the debutante dress featured a hoop skirt and elaborate trimmings which included a single ostrich plume worn on the head, even though simple dresses with high waists were favored. During the reign ofKing George IV
George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...
, the hoop skirt was excluded and the style for a debutante gown became a variation of whatever was considered popular for formal evening wear during the period.
Victorian era
Débutante dresses were almost always short-sleeved and had to have a low neckline. However a doctor's certificate could be presented at the time stating that low cut was injurious to the young woman's health. After a débutante married, if she had married appropriately, she would be re-presented at Court as a married woman, usually wearing her wedding dress with alterations.
Queen Victoria was said to have hated small feathers, so orders were sent out that Her Majesty wished to see the feathers as the young lady approached. Late in Queen Victoria's reign and into the court of Edward VII, the necessary headdress was three feathers arranged in a Prince of Wales plume. A center feather slightly higher than the two on each side worn slightly on the left side of the head.
For young ladies and women to be presented who were in mourning, it was acceptable for their dresses and veils to be black. No matter how cold the weather was on this special day, absolutely no cloaks, shawls, capes, or wraps of any kind were permitted to be worn. Those items remained in the lady's carriage.
See also
*Debutante
A debutante, also spelled débutante, ( ; from french: débutante , "female beginner") or deb is a young woman of aristocratic or upper-class family background who has reached maturity and, as a new adult, is presented to society at a formal " ...
* Debutante ball
* International Debutante Ball
* Vienna Opera Ball
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Debutante Dress 18th-century fashion 19th-century fashion Gowns Formal wear History of fashion Victorian fashion Debutantes Dresses