Five beautiful debutante dresses worn in 1958 by Lady Camoys of Stonor Park have returned home from London to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee this summer. 

Lady Camoys was one of the last debutantes to be presented – and to curtsey - to the Queen in 1958, after which the tradition ended.  Until then this event was the highlight of ‘the season,’ when young girls ‘came out’ and were introduced to society through a series of tea-parties, cocktail parties and balls, organised by their mothers or another relative who had also been ‘presented.’  Ultimately it was hoped that through this social whirl, the girls from this privileged group would find a husband from a similar background.

The dresses, worn at various events during the season, were on public display at Kensington Palace in 2009 and 2010 in an exhibition called “The last debutantes, 1958: Season of Change.”  They were returned last year, together with the display ‘bodies,’ which are padded, hooped and netted to show the dresses off at their best.  They were made by the costume department at Kensington Palace.  Lady Camoys has placed the dresses on display in a bedroom at Stonor Park, where the public will be able to view them during opening times this summer. 

The group comprises: a yellow spotted net, worn by Lady Camoys at her coming out ball at her home, Melford Hall, in Suffolk; a pink satin sleeveless ball dress by Susan Small; a pale green brocaded evening dress with green velvet ribbon from Woollands; a brown and cream net dress by Balmain and a pink chiffon dress. "I wore the green brocade dress first at a Charity Ball my Mother gave for her friend, Sue Ryder, at the beginning of that year," said Lady Camoys. Also on display with the dresses are some of the accessories worn by Lady Camoys at the time – a pair of full-length cream leather gloves, two evening bags and a feather evening wrap.  Accompanying the ‘ladies’ is a ‘gentleman’ dressed in a Bullingdon Club coat belonging to Lord Camoys.  

“We were presented to the Queen at the beginning of the season – I was presented on March 18, 1958,” said Lady Camoys.  “We’d been taught how to curtsey by Madame Vacani, who ran the leading school in deportment, and we were presented to the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and other members of the Royal family.  It was quite nerve-wracking!  We were in groups of three to four hundred each day, as there were around 1400 of us that year.”

Stonor Park opens to the public on 1 April and continues to open on Sundays until mid-September and Wednesdays during July and August, as well as Bank Holidays during these times.  The house is open from 2.00 pm to 5.30 pm and the gardens and chapel from 1.00 pm to 5.30 pm.  More information on www.stonor.com.