A tradition born of real purpose can, over time, calcify into something so peculiar that it obscures why it ever existed at all. It may drift out of fashion, be half forgotten, yet still linger—ready to surface again the moment the original need returns. So it is with le Bal des Débutantes in Paris. It’s back, in a big way. It seems girls on the cusp of adulthood feel a palpable need to announce their readiness for a new role—to “come out.” Le Bal endures because it answers, and elegantly tames, the age-old turbulence of a girl’s passage into adolescence.
Last year, I reported on the 2023 edition—and on my punctual attendance at each edition for 25 years running. I’m still running—back to le Bal this November.
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