What should visitors expect?
Experience the bewildering rules of social etiquette and the dizzying schedule of court presentations, cocktail parties and dances the last debutantes kept during the summer of 1958. See the fashionable afternoon dresses, ball gowns and elegant menswear of the 1958 Season alongside clothing, accessories, photographs, and original newsreel footage, which illustrates the dramatic social change that saw the rise of the teenager and heralded the arrival of the Swinging Sixties
- See clothing worn by the 1958 debutantes, including stunning examples of couture by Christian Dior, Pierre Balmain and Jacques Heim. The superb tailoring of Anderson & Shepherd and others who supplied the debutantes’ male companions (known as debs’ delights) with the sophisticated look they needed for the whirl of social events during the Season of 1958
- Hear fascinating and personal stories from 1958 debutantes, debs’ delights and people who were teenagers in London during the late 1950s
- See photographs and personal memories of the last debutantes
- Have the chance to be schooled in the art of the perfect court curtsey by a 1958 debutante and learn how to tie a proper bow tie
This exhibition captures the spirit of a world in transition. As new ideas about class and privilege were raised through the mass media, the debutantes’ days were numbered. Against a mix of ceremony and pop culture, the exhibition illustrates the elegance, social change and teenage culture that set the scene in Britain during the summer of 1958: the year of the last debutantes.
Visitors should allow approximately 45 minutes to view the exhibition.
