Debutante dress

Dawn Procter wore this dress to a debutante ball at Majestic Cabaret in Wellington in 1953. The ball was put on by the Queen Margaret College Parents’ and Old Girls’ Associations. 

Dawn, aged 18, had the dress made up from a picture she saw in a magazine. Her neighbour, Mrs Bird, made the dress with a treadle machine, and Dawn thinks she may have hand-sewn the trim on herself.

Debutante balls were occasions where young women were formally presented to society, announcing to the public that they were ready to marry. The custom was introduced to New Zealand by British settlers in the mid-nineteenth century and had a resurgence in the 1940s and 1950s.

Debutante balls were very formal and ceremonial. The ball Dawn attended was written up in the Evening Post, with various aspects of the event – including the debutantes’ dresses – described in detail.

The debutantes were piped down the stairs at the Majestic Cabaret, and in the same tradition were met at the foot by their fathers and there curtsied to the assembly. As their names were announced by Mr. J.L. Chapman the “debs.” were presented by their mothers and curtsied again, this time to the official party … After the presentation, debutantes danced the traditional waltz, partnered by their fathers … Lovely bouffant-skirted frocks in rich or diaphanous white materials were worn by “debs.” As they came downstairs for the ceremony each made a picture of youthful grace and prettiness.

Seventy years on, Dawn doesn’t recall curtsying or waltzing, but she does remember that the debutante balls brought a bit of glamour and excitement back to their lives after years of war and rationing.

Further reading
White, Georgina. 2007. Light Fantastic: Dance Floor Courtship in New Zealand. Auckland: HarperCollins Publishers.