Download or read book Dressing Up Debutantes written by Michaele Thurgood Haynes and published by Berg Publishers. This book was released on 1998-08 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For ninety years, young society women in San Antonio, Texas have donned custom-designed dresses and trains to take part in the Coronation of a queen and her court. These royal robes, which weigh fifty pounds and more and cost an average of $18,000, are highly embellished with rhinestones and beads. The Coronation is part of the ten-day, century-old festival celebrating the final battle of the 1836 Texas revolt against Mexico. This book provides a significant contribution to the study of social elites in Western society through a material culture analysis of the Coronation costumes worn by the Euro-American debutantes. Set against the backdrop of a city undergoing many demographic, socioeconomic, and political changes, the themes of Coronation pageants represent the mythologized ethnic and class history which reinforces the hierarchical positioning of its participants. The royal robes serve as the canvas upon which this theme is carried out. The Coronation, held in a city with a Hispanic majority, has come under attack for its elitism, but participation in it is still important for the old Euro-American aristocracy and for a very few extremely wealthy Hispanic families. Integral to the continuation of this increasingly contested tradition is the emotional appeal that wearing these intricately decorated gowns holds for participants.
Download or read book Dressing Up Debutantes written by Michaele Thurgood Haynes and published by Berg Publishers. This book was released on 1998-08 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For ninety years, young society women in San Antonio, Texas have donned custom-designed dresses and trains to take part in the Coronation of a queen and her court. These royal robes, which weigh fifty pounds and more and cost an average of $18,000, are highly embellished with rhinestones and beads. The Coronation is part of the ten-day, century-old festival celebrating the final battle of the 1836 Texas revolt against Mexico. This book provides a significant contribution to the study of social elites in Western society through a material culture analysis of the Coronation costumes worn by the Euro-American debutantes. Set against the backdrop of a city undergoing many demographic, socioeconomic, and political changes, the themes of Coronation pageants represent the mythologized ethnic and class history which reinforces the hierarchical positioning of its participants. The royal robes serve as the canvas upon which this theme is carried out. The Coronation, held in a city with a Hispanic majority, has come under attack for its elitism, but participation in it is still important for the old Euro-American aristocracy and for a very few extremely wealthy Hispanic families. Integral to the continuation of this increasingly contested tradition is the emotional appeal that wearing these intricately decorated gowns holds for participants.
Download or read book The Season written by Kristen Richardson and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2020-11-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Smithsonian Best History Book of 2019 In this enthralling history of the debutante ritual, Kristen Richardson sheds new light on contemporary ideas about women and marriage. Kristen Richardson, from a family of debutantes, chose not to debut. But as her curiosity drove her to research this enduring custom, she learned that it, and debutantes, are not as simple as they seem. The story begins in England six hundred years ago when wealthy fathers needed an efficient way to find appropriate husbands for their daughters. Elizabeth I’s exclusive presentations at her court expanded into London’s full season of dances, dinners, and courting, extending eventually to the many corners of the British empire and beyond. Richardson traces the social seasons of young women on both sides of the Atlantic, from Georgian England to colonial Philadelphia, from the Antebellum South and Wharton’s New York back to England, where debutante daughters of Gilded Age millionaires sought to marry British aristocrats. She delves into Jazz Age debuts, carnival balls in the American South, and the reimagined ritual of elite African American communities, which offers both social polish and academic scholarships. The Season shares the captivating stories of these young women, often through their words from diaries, letters, and interviews that Richardson conducted at contemporary balls. The debutantes give voice to an array of complex feelings about being put on display, about the young men they meet, and about what their future in society or as wives might be. While exploring why the debutante tradition persists—and why it has spread to Russia, China, and other nations—Richardson has uncovered its extensive cultural influence on the lives of daughters in Britain and the US and how they have come to marry.
Download or read book The Daughter of Highland Hall written by Carrie Turansky and published by Multnomah. This book was released on 2014-10-07 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if the title, the estate, the life of security and splendor… what if it isn’t enough? Strong-willed and beautiful, debutante Katherine Ramsey feels ready to take the London social season by storm, and she must. Her family estate, Highland Hall, has been passed to older male cousin Sir William Ramsey, and her only means of securing her future is to make a strong debut and find a proper husband. With her all-knowing and meddling aunt as a guide, Katherine is certain to attract suitors at the lavish gatherings, sparkling with Great Britain’s elite. When a shocking family scandal sidelines Katherine, forcing her out of the social spotlight, she keeps a low profile, volunteering with the poor in London’s East End. Here Katherine feels free from her predictable future, and even more so as a friendship with medical student Jonathan Foster deepens and her faith in God grows. But when Katherine is courted anew by a man of wealth and position, dreams of the life she always thought she wanted surface again. Torn between tradition and the stirrings in her heart for a different path, she must decide whom she can trust and love—and if she will choose a life serving others over one where she is served.
Download or read book The Last Dance of the Debutante written by Julia Kelly and published by Canelo. This book was released on 2022-03-31 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amidst the glamour of high society, a tawdry secret will change Lily’s life forever... 1958. The last year debutantes will be presented at court to the young Queen Elizabeth and officially come out into society. To appease her traditional mother, aspiring university student Lily Nicholls agrees to debut and do the Season – a glittering and gruelling string of endless balls and cocktail parties. There she befriends two women: aloof Leana Hartford, whose apparent perfection hides a darker side, and ambitious Katherine Norman, who dreams of a career after helping her parents find their place among the elite. But the sparkle of the Season dims when Lily learns a devastating secret that threatens to destroy her entire family. Faced with a murky past, what will she choose for her future: her family legacy, or her own, uncertain happiness? A fast-paced and compelling historical novel for fans of Kate Morton and The Crown. Praise for The Last Dance of the Debutante "Between the crinkling of crinolines and the popping of champagne corks, Last Dance of the Debutante leads us on a glorious dance through the traditional glamour and suffocating expectations of a bygone era." Genevieve Graham, bestselling author of Letters across the Sea "Julia Kelly elegantly brings to life the last official presentation of debutantes at court with her exquisitely researched and beautiful written detail. This story was so decadent, I wanted to don silk and crinoline and read it with a glass of champagne." Madeline Martin, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Bookshop in London "Refreshing, intriguing, oozing with elegance, and with three female leads who will keep you thoroughly engrossed, a charming gem of a novel which will delight fans of The Crown." Hazel Gaynor, New York Times bestselling author of The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter "An insightful and engaging look at this neglected subject ... an unforgettable journey of a young woman's liberation." Piper Huguley, author of By Design: the story of Ann Lowe, Society's Best-Kept Secret "Peels back layers of lush glamour and the extraordinary expectations of the London Season to give us a glimpse into a world teetering on the brink of change and the choices facing those who navigated it. Woven with heartfelt emotion, this novel is a captivating, unforgettable story of one woman's journey to find love, truth, and, most importantly, herself." Kelly Bowen, author of The Paris Apartment "Kelly's descriptions of the glamorous, though long nights, are captivating. The pressure these young women feel to impress and make the right match is exhausting, and Kelly evokes compassion for her characters. The story is full of allure, society scandals, and the determination for these young women to eschew the dying traditions of the time." Booklist "The engrossing narrative dishes out the right amount of tension while moving the plot forward at a satisfying pace... Kelly succeeds at bringing a bygone world to life." Publishers Weekly
Download or read book The Last Debutantes written by Georgie Blalock and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-08-24 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fans of The Kennedy Debutante and Next Year in Havana will love Georgie Blalock’s new novel of a world on the cusp of change...set on the eve of World War II in the glittering world of English society and one of the last debutante seasons. They danced the night away, knowing their world was about to change forever. They were the debutantes of 1939, laughing on the outside, but knowing tragedy— and a war—was just around the corner. When Valerie de Vere Cole, the niece of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, makes her deep curtsey to the King and Queen of England, she knows she’s part of a world about to end. The daughter of a debt-ridden father and a neglectful mother, Valerie sees firsthand that war is imminent. Nevertheless, Valerie reinvents herself as a carefree and glittering young society woman, befriending other debutantes from England’s aristocracy as well as the vivacious Eunice Kennedy, daughter of the U.S. Ambassador. Despite her social success, the world’s troubles and Valerie’s fear of loss and loneliness prove impossible to ignore. How will she navigate her new life when everything in her past has taught her that happiness and stability are as fragile as peace in our time? For the moment she will forget her cares in too much champagne and waltzes. Because very soon, Valerie knows that she must find the inner strength to stand strong and carry on through the challenges of life and love and war.
Download or read book The Last Debutante written by Julia London and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-02-26 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The lush Scottish Highlands are a tempting setting for seduction in New York Times bestselling author Julia London’s sparkling novel. Who is the captive and who is the captor? When a sexy laird holds a spirited English lady for ransom, she turns the tables and steals his heart. The last person Daria Babcock expects to find in her grandmother’s home is a brawny, naked Highlander. She doesn’t buy Mamie’s explanation about finding the poor man shot in the woods. Nor does she trust the gorgeous laird, who insists his own memory fails him. But Daria came to Scotland looking for adventure and romance, and after the intriguing stranger kidnaps her, she gets her wish—and so much more....
Download or read book Little White Lies written by Jennifer Lynn Barnes and published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2018-11-04 with total page 588 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scandal, scheming, and secrets abound in #1 bestselling author Jennifer Lynn Barnes’s Little White Lies, packed with “page-turning tension, witty humor” (Jennifer L. Armentrout), and “characters as devious as they are southern-belle glamorous (E. Lockhart). "I'm not saying this is Sawyer's fault," the prim and proper one said delicately. "But." Eighteen-year-old auto mechanic Sawyer Taft did not expect her estranged grandmother to show up at her apartment door and offer her a six-figure contract to participate in debutante season. And she definitely never imagined she would accept. But when she realizes that immersing herself in her grandmother's "society" might mean discovering the answer to the biggest mystery of her life—her father's identity—she signs on the dotted line and braces herself for a year of makeovers, big dresses, bigger egos, and a whole lot of bless your heart. The one thing she doesn't expect to find is friendship, but as she's drawn into a group of debutantes with scandalous, dangerous secrets of their own, Sawyer quickly discovers that her family is not the only mainstay of high society with skeletons in their closet. There are people in her grandmother's glittering world who are not what they appear, and no one wants Sawyer poking her nose into the past. As she navigates the twisted relationships between her new friends and their powerful parents, Sawyer's search for the truth about her own origins is just the beginning.
Download or read book Debutante written by Karal Ann Marling and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The social debut and its offshoots--the high school prom, the sorority presentation, beauty pageants--continue to emphasize celebrity, class, and community. But why does this peculiar tradition persist? In "Debutante," Marling demystifies debdom and the "long-term American hankering after the trappings of royalty."
Download or read book Inventing the Fiesta City written by Laura Hernández-Ehrisman and published by University of New Mexico Press. This book was released on 2016-03-17 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of how the multicultural identity of San Antonio, Texas, has been shaped and polished through its annual fiesta since the late nineteenth century.
Download or read book Debutantes and the London Season written by Lucinda Gosling and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-03-10 with total page 123 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Until the middle of the last century, London's social calendar was dominated by 'the Season', a round of social events and parties during which the daughters of the upper classes made their 'debuts'. Debutantes and their families descended on the capital from all over Britain to take part in this elaborate process that in its blend of glamour, great privilege and archaic and sometimes comic ritual is emblematic of a world now lost. From the preparations and formalities of court presentation to the exhausting round of parties that followed, Debutantes and the London Season is a detailed look at a phenomenon that was central to the lives of generations of privileged young ladies.
Download or read book The Debutante written by Kathleen Tessaro and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2010-10-05 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brilliant, unforgettable novel by the New York Times bestselling author of The Perfume Collector. Can the secrets of one woman's past change another woman's future? Cate Albion is a gifted young artist at a crossroads in her life. Looking to escape New York for the summer, she takes a job in her aunt's London auction house and is soon sent on assignment to the English countryside to value the contents of Endsleigh House, the once gracious but now crumbling estate of a former Jazz Age socialite. There, hidden in the back of a dusty bookshelf, Cate discovers an old shoebox, and inside, a peculiar assortment of objects, including an exquisite pair of 1930s dancing shoes; a faded photograph of a handsome young sailor, and a rare Tiffany pearl and emerald bracelet. Intrigued, Cate sets out to learn more about the box and its contents, and becomes immersed in the mystery of its owner, Diana “Baby” Blythe, the younger of the infamous, glamorous Blythe sisters. Bright, beautiful, and reckless, Baby was the most famous debutante of her generation . . . until she suddenly disappeared entirely from view. As a shocking tale of love and betrayal begins to unravel, Cate finds herself being drawn deeper into Baby's tragic life story—one that will force Cate to confront some dark truths about her own choices.
Download or read book The Hazards of Hunting a Duke written by Julia London and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2006-06-01 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fans of Bridgerton will fall in love with Julia London’s New York Times bestselling “witty, spicy, and funny” (Library Journal) Desperate Debutantes trilogy, in which three aristocratic sisters, upon discovering they are destitute, resort to desperate means to keep up appearances...and find the husbands of their dreams. The young ladies of the Fairchild family have just learned that their stepfather has absconded with their late mother’s fortune. Ava, the eldest, decides to take matters into her own hands and hunts down the notoriously wealthy rakehell Jared Broderick, the Marquis of Middleton and heir to a dukedom. Much to her shock and delight, the marquis sweeps her into a whirlwind romance and proposes marriage. But after their passionate wedding night, Ava discovers Jared has ulterior motives of his own. Not only does he expect her to deliver an heir while he continues to enjoy a rogue’s life, but Ava also suspects she is a pawn in her husband’s quest for revenge. Marriages of convenience might work for some, but for Ava, a loveless bond won’t do. So she devises a bold plan to confront her husband’s demons so that he will be free to give her his heart for the right reason: because she is the only woman he will ever truly desire.
Download or read book Confessions of a Rebel Debutante written by Anna Fields and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2010-04-15 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fond, funny Southern-fried memoir about growing up a proper young lady...or not. How does a North Carolina native go from being a tomboy with catfish guts on her overalls to becoming the next Scarlett O'Hara? Turns out, it's not so easy. Too smart, too tall, too fat, too different...Anna Fields was a dud at debbing. From tea parties to teased hair to where to hide mini bottles of liquor inside poufy crinoline ballgowns, Anna reveals all-in a hilarious, behindthe-scenes glimpse into Deb Culture, where for a Southern belle, "the proof is in the pouf." Unless, of course, she rebels...
Download or read book The Russian Debutante s Handbook written by Gary Shteyngart and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2003-04-29 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NAMED ONE OF THE ATLANTIC'S GREAT AMERICAN NOVELS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS A visionary novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Super Sad True Love Story and Little Failure. The Russian Debutante's Handbook introduces Vladimir Girshkin, one of the most original and unlikely heroes of recent times. The twenty-five-year-old unhappy lover to a fat dungeon mistress, affectionately nicknamed "Little Failure" by his high-achieving mother, Vladimir toils his days away as a lowly clerk at the bureaucratic Emma Lazarus Immigrant Absorption Society. When a wealthy but psychotic old Russian war hero appears, Vladimir embarks on an adventure of unrelenting lunacy that takes us from New York's Lower East Side to the hip frontier wilderness of Prava--the Eastern European Paris of the nineties. With the help of a murderous but fun-loving Russian mafioso, Vladimir infiltrates the Prava expat community and launches a scheme as ridiculous as it is brilliant. Bursting with wit, humor, and rare insight, The Russian Debutante's Handbook is both a highly imaginative romp and a serious exploration of what it means to be an immigrant in America.
Download or read book Dressed in Time written by Margaret Maynard and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-12-01 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through object-based case studies of garments from the ancient past through to the 21st century, Margaret Maynard reveals the countless ways the temporal is woven into our attire. From the physical effects of age on garments to their changing cultural significance, time and fashion are inextricably linked. Every garment has its own pace and narrative, and every dress practice is rich with temporal associations: 'wearing' time in the form wristwatches, marking key moments in time from marriage to death, 'defying' time with beauty products, preserving and re-imagining time through vintage, and concepts of 'timeless' and 'classic' styles. This ground-breaking book presents a complete rethinking of the study of global fashion history, revealing the complex nature of changing fashion when viewed through the lens of time and challenging Eurocentric approaches such as the periodization of style and the arbitrary division of 'western' and 'non-western' fashion. Fashion in Time is essential reading for students and scholars of fashion and dress history, material culture studies, cultural anthropology, archaeology and related fields.
Download or read book The Season A Social History of the Debutante written by Kristen Richardson and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2019-11-19 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Smithsonian Best History Book of 2019 “Sparkling.” —Genevieve Valentine, NPR Kristen Richardson traces the social seasons of debutantes on both sides of the Atlantic, sharing their stories in their own words, through diaries, letters, and interviews conducted at contemporary balls. Richardson takes the reader from Georgian England to colonial Philadelphia, from the Antebellum South and Wharton’s New York to the reimagined rituals of African American communities. Originally conceived as a way to wed daughters to suitable men, debutante rituals have adapted and evolved as marriage and women’s lives have changed. An inquiry into the ritual’s enduring cultural significance, The Season also reveals the complex emotional world of the girls at its center, whose every move was scrutinized and judged, and on whose backs family fortunes rested.
