1957-11-30 — Page 9

Page

THE CHINA "MAIL, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1967.

WEEK-END WOMANSENSE

GOODBYE, DARLING!

THE DRESS AND THE POISE THAT WENT TO

HANE UP EVERYTHING A DER EVER WAS.

A Farewell (A Slightly Reluctant Farewell)

To The Girl We Will Never See Again

O she has gone for good!

The girl who either

through birth, or money, or both, had the privilege of

&

By WILLIAM HICKEY

There were the official in- Her mother, or the Woman being presented to the structions from the Lord Cham- who was presenting her would Monarch. She has never berlain-the train "which should also be making the most of her been quite the same

since not exceed two yards In length" facing charms.

and "must not extend more than 1989. But she still existed 18 inches from the heel of the in

modified, slightly wearer when standing." austore way at the evening presentation parties. And how those too have gone.

In the old days before the war that presentation was a most tremendous thing.

DRAWN BY ROBB

There were the precise in structions about "the three small white feathers mounted na n Prince of Wales's plume."

man.

From Joy Matthews

MIXING IT

The

The car was nearly always a bleed

⚫ REVIES OF BEADS. Rolls or Dulmler. The

of the newest are mixed and prac- rush to get to the head

tically queue In

unmatched. They are the Mall was an expert's job. And with the long lassos und wind round driver there had to be a foot-two or three times. Smartest are in the coffee, belge, browns, and ambers. There are sweet-

amber pear shop beads-with drops, barley sugars, butter- scotch, milk chocolate drops and orange fruit gums mixed with kaleidoscopes of coloured mirror glass. Wonderful with beige,

So the instructions went on. THE LONG WAIT

and there were sketches of typical Court dress solemnly laid out on view in

the Lord Chamberlain's office.

GREAT MOMENT

-for Bocky Sharp

wrote

then the foll

At six they started lining up outside the Palace. They were well-equipped for the wall. There would be champagne, brandy and pato sandwiches. Sometimes, the wait was

BEATING IT

It was a colossal moment in a long that things got out of girl's life for, no Thackeray hant. One girl had drunk so about Becky Shorp's much champagne that when she presentation In "Vanity Fair'; went to curtsy to the King and THE ULTIMATE in egg- beaters has arrived on thic If she did not wish to lead Queen she fell fat on her face.

It's made of stainless

a virtuous life, at least she But still, these are little market, desired to enjoy a character for contretemps which chamberlaing steel so that it doesn't make that grinding noise as it beats-and virtue, and we know that no are used to dealing with. Judy In the genteel world can

can't rust up. The handle is set possess this desideratum, until Normally the debatante and in at an angle instead of on top, she has put on a train and her mother wouk) enter the so that you don't end up with an aching wrist. And both grip teathers and been presented to Palace and be morshalled into n

and ·Turner Are CoverM her sovereign at Court.

queue by Court officials,

|ridged, non-slippery plastbes

The

From that august Interview Then her turn would come (that it can't fly off the handle, they come out stamped as to enter the throne room. honest women. The Lord King and Queen would be sitting Chamberlain gives them a certi- Beale of virtue. 彝

And that "certificate of virluc" was what the whole business of being presented was about,

FOR THAT Daddy raised another mortgage on the home

farm.

FOR THAT Mummy pawned grandmother's jewels.

to

FOR THAT that poor Kirl who was to be presented was hounded to the Continent to be Anished. and then pushed, pummelled, corseled, mode have a semblance of elegance, and even curlsy all habits which don't go with the buxom rusticity of the British girl from the best fomlites.

But the sacrifices had to be made, For without that pre- sentation, the girl could scarcely be offered on the marriage

market, as first-class.

On the night the girl was 19 be presented, she would start dressing about four in the after-

noon.

AN UNSENTIMENTAL REPLY

TO WILLIAM HICKEY

7ILLIAM HICKEY,

Wsulte a tough under all

that charm, is all misty-

by TOM POCOCK

eyed and cooing, "Goodbye, Life for the kind, silly country darling" He was bidding girl that was her daughter. a sentimental farewell to

PITCHFORKED

The Debutanto who, he had · just heard, was to bo banished to the social his. PERHAPS it had not occurred

own

£1,000, but can be four ilmes that amount,

This fee does not include ex- unable

penses. Debutantes who already to present her daughter at Court or shepherd borrow a London house have have sultable clothes and can her through Ascot, Lord's,

been presented at á enst of only Honley, and the dances. She £350, But as a dance for 40 would therefore enlist an un people at a London hotel will or a family friend who would

cost about £1,000, they are the de the 100, and, in return, re-

exceptions, andsome present.

her expenses and D

her that she was about crive

tory books. I join Hickey to uilchfork Angela into a non- in these obsequies. But, in stop round of parties in which saying "Goodbye, darling!" alcohol, night clubs and that 1 will add a little rudely- band of brothers, the pilgible, "I am so glad you are not older coming back."

I'm glad the Queen has de- ckled to end the presentation parties. I'm glad the Court

dances.

..

on their thrones, Round them would be grouped their children and dozens of the high officials of the Court,

The Chamberlain would knock on the floor with his white

SMOKING IT

15%

FIRST IT WAS smoked wand and announce the presence salmon; then smoked rov; then of "The Marchioness of Some-buckling and ham. Now they are where-or-other with her daugh-moking cheese in Austria and ter, Lady So-and-so." The selling it in Britain. It looks ex- curtsles would be made.

actly like a big German sausage

Their Majesties inclined their and tastes very slightly of bacon. heads. In most-favoured cases, You just slice it like sausage, ая with, say, a duchess's and eat it plain or with mustard. daughter, or a friend of the At comes in a nice easy-to-carry family, the Queen might stay box. ire girl and talk to her for # minute.

This was enough to make any girl's reputation on the marriage market and drive other parents to distraction.

It was a magnificent speciacio us the women swept through and formed up in a semi-circle beyond.

BUT IT WAS · INEVITABLE THAT IT SHOULD END.

For the Queen-ean no longer afford to have 0 Court and acquaintances who are drawn from a noble or very rich set.

But still, with its passing, something of beauty and glamour has gone out of life. And it should not go without a nostalgic sigh.

THE SIGH that one gives to olher outmoded institutions and customs-the hansom cab,

the liverled footman walking behind his mistress in the street when she went shopping, candle-light, and the street-calls of London.

AND AFTERWARDS

partios and night clubs After the presentation there were great dinner parties in the town houseo of Mayfair, Knightsbridge, and Westminster. Then there was a dance.

Д

And then generally a night The mother who will bribe to club, Ciro's, the Cafe de Paris, get her daughter into Bucking where the girl you might have the Berkeley, the May Fair, Inevitably, this was open to ham Palace is unilkely to skimp seen looking like a princess.

the champagne, the clothes, the few hours earlier was dancing bachelors of London, abuke. And just before the

lunchera parties, and the madly and looking like a chorus would play the considerable parts, It, out of this melee,

war it started,

girl,- Women who Angela could pick a rich hus-

This is not all. The debut bo said for that

Then came the war. And let band--ali might

well.

had themselves been presented

tantes much-publicised charl of girls, there were no

gonoration Otherwise it would be very

Palace at Court le it be known al' table activities have also been

parties or Prince of Wales surprising invloedi Jr !! ત

infected. Some of these are feathers. They were in the the most discreet Uttle luncheon throughly

projects. Services, driving ambulances or worthy Others pre little more thon partley that they might

worthy

excuses for expensive working in factories. willing

arid present unltable high-jinles,

profitable publicity. candidates,

be

has self demolished the an Angela any good at all. cient

end historic foundu- tion upon which an unrealistle, unjust, and unhealthy social

CHARADE

structure had been erected,

I am glad for two reasons. gimpse of Le High Life us One is a human reason. The much as the next man, I must

BUT, as one who enjoys a

to

Bo

The

other is that the whole frilly not moralise, I also realise that In return they would expect fabric of debbery has become the end of presentation parties their expenses and a tip.

described as a racket.

NO TEARS

At the end of the war it was obvious that the debutanto system of the pre-war ord coulă not flourish us before.

First, there were garden parties at the Palace which counted for the girl as presonta- finally decided

inteeled by what can only be may not mean the end of the tip would probably ever the THIS has not gone unnoticed. tion--and this is the system that

London Season.

Like a de-

It 13 one

of the main the Queen hoo 'reasons toe the debutantes on.

The whole pathetic pantomline condemned itself to RELAXED, BUT

cost of next year's new car. Now it can fairly be said that capitated chicken, it may co on Some even put discreetly word-

ed advertisements in

the doom. these days the London Season, lapping about.

death. But I condemn the whale Personal Columns.

Let us not be sorry for the departing deba.

as is known, enn be as dangerous on obstacle us can

be placed in the path of on charade for quito another unsophisticated teenage girl,

new to the ageless and cynical reusov.

waja of the world.

This is, I believe, the

I remember one deb's mother. She had marries a shou factory, in Buckingham Palace,

marketing,

WORSE

Angela, poor child, has "come reason that carried mast weight THE war, while it encouraged

other forma DA black out" and phased through tho temporarily ended sausage machine. Had she been this. But when it began again' iwo years younger all that several ships, and a foreli It all began more than 20 the prostitution of privliege money might have helped her rollway system, and she was all years ago when the entertened was worse than over.

Back become a more useful and in- tweeds and officer-like qualities, of a debutante was still sont- came the advertisements. The teresting person.

was simple, Two or Her daughter, a plump girl thing graceful, gracious, and tariff

Girle still at school will get It may have three dowagers would, for some the chance she missed. Their who, like her another, spoke in rather grand.

Q well-to-do £4,000, sponsor

latont talents may get a chance.

a lilgh, flat monotone, was about been an archate social survival, to be brought out." Said her but it was part of a great his mother: " think it's only fair torical tapestry.

to 'spend as much on Angela's Scuson as on Nigel's university."

THE TIP

This meant that upwards

of

£1,000 was to-be spent on the N those days it would-happen artificial creation of what the that a well-to-do and social

used to call Le High, ly qualified mother might be

French

—still two classes.

Bot in 1951, King George VI, who loved Court cremony, decided to bring back a modifed form of the old evening party.

There were no feathers. The whole business was much more rolaxed than before the But it still meant that

the young girls of England were divided into two classes

Those who had been present-

"There will still be a dobutanto.

woman who would in turn bo And, one day, some of them are ed. And those who had not, able to got her money back by quite likely to find themselves. sponsoring others, i

..up Ining

for a different world, beccuse there will be Generally sponsors would. In presentation at Buckinghatn girls who do get their invitam tion to the garden partier, “But addition to presenting a girl, Palace,

something of the glamour, and to the fashionable take her

and 'a fow But then they will have earn the exclusiveness will have dis- sporting events.

apposral for weis. dances. The usual Lòo' in riba ed the honour.

Rotar

Newly Arrived from London

MAGIC MASK

Makes lovely complexions loveller

[].

There's now loveliness for you "in

MAGIC BEAUTY MASK!

This lamova 65 minutes beauty treatment isavti your skin notfär, cleaner, more exquisitely refined.

Try MADIC MABK today ... . H's the modera WAY to A Loveller complexion.

Salon d'OR

Exclusive Beauty Balon

featuring

Holeria Histofn

Preperation

Im. 101, YU TO RẰNG BLDO, QUANG TRÊN E Appointment Tel: Bit17

CULTURED

PEARLS

FALCONER'S

ALEXANDRA, HOUSE

Chater Road Hong Kong A Tel:22143 Established 1855

All Crystal goods at 10% discount for this week!

A

PERFECTIONIST'S

MOTTO

Shock-absorbing device

Micrometric Vodjusting scraw

Antimagnetic balance and hairspring

Do better if you can.

It's always possible.

Thus, tersely and unequivocally, François Constantin laid down a policy for the House of Vacheron & Cons- tantin. It was in 1819, sixty-four years after the firm's founding.

Today, Vacheron & Constantin are in their third century, the world's oldest watch manufacturers. By heed- ing a perfectionist's motto, they have thrived where others failed to survive.

The "Automatic Jubilé”, was directly inspired by the policy of François Constantin, for few believed it possible that so thin a watch can be both self-winding and water- proof.

"It's always possible..."

THE “AUTOMATIC JUBILE" IS THE SMARTEST "AUTOMATIC WATERPROOF WATCH IN EXISTENCE" Thin and Elegant.

VACHERON

ET

CONSTANTIN

IN

SINCE

GENEVA

1 7.5 5

Sole Agents:

SWISS IMPORT EXPORT TRADING CO., LTD."