The Aristocracy is Back

The Independent newspaper online reports that debutante balls are back. Like the US equivalent, these are those extravagant dances where young socialite women are put into pretty dresses and paraded around like pure-bred hounds at the Westminster Kennel Club. They are only for the rich, and not even for the nouveau riche, this is old money; you won't find Madonna's children here.

Interestingly, the Debutante Ball seems to have followed a slightly different path in the UK than in the US. Debutante Balls have been noted in US newspapers from as early as 1899. Yet they have been going strong among the upper classes in the US, with appearances in Town and Country magazine and even appearing in recent US film and television. While quite traditional in the South (the "Southern Belle") with their wealthy plantation owners, it hasn't died with slavery and is still going strong in various parts of the country.

The UK Debutante Ball has travelled a slightly different path. The most well-known of the balls (I'm assuming there are many in the season), is the Queen Charlotte's Ball, which (as the Independent reports)

The monarchy stopped attending the ball – where girls in white wedding dresses signifying their virginity would curtsy in front of the Queen – in 1958, at a time when Britain's imperial pomp had taken a hammering with the loss of the colonies and the disastrous Suez Crisis.
But thanks largely to Peter Townend, the tireless social editor of Tatler whose memory for debutantes past and present was legendary, the ball and the season's dances, fashion shows and garden parties soldiered on with varying degrees of success.
But in 1997, the Queen Charlotte's Ball folded and once Townend died four years later, the season seemed to be little more than a pale reflection of its former glory days.

The monarchy always bows to social pressures (does anyone remember now that the Royal family is German??), and the increasing socialism, calls for more political independence and the rise of the proletariat in the UK seems to have coincided with the monarch's exit from the upper class parties. Yet, just like the rest of the country, even though the Queen may not have a presence, things still go on without her. It wasn't until 1997 that the ball died.

Yet it's back.

Here the UK sits under a Labour government, ostensibly arguing for the working class, the trade unions and the socialists, and yet the aristocracy is enjoying a re-newed level of pleasure while the rest of the country suffers from the recession brought on by millionaire bankers and business-influenced politicians. Like it or not, the aristocrat is back. Is a return to feudalism nigh?