Debutante Balls Come to Dubai

Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Dubai now has its very own debutante ball, thanks to the London Season Academy. Last week, the group hosted 150 guests (from Europe and the Middle East) at a celebration of high-society coming-of-age on the privately owned Royal Island off the coast of Dubai.

How to justify launching a new debutante event in this era? While there are perhaps arguments about tradition and ritual to bolster existing debutante balls, they look like fading relics. But one special subset thought, Screw that natural progress. We shall create a new home for this outdated, elitist ritual. For how else will women of marrying age and purity be presented to the acceptable men of society? Don’t you dare say they can meet at school or among their friends and family. Don’t you dare. They shall meet at an ersatz wedding.

But hold your judgmental horses: There are practical skills involved in the debutante experience. For example, these women can cut scones. They attended social, business, and etiquette classes — which involved instructions on shaking hands, preparing afternoon tea, and cutting scones.

Those are crumby, tricky little pastries, so it truly is a blessing to all of society that at least several women know how to slice this morning snack elegantly.

Debutante Balls Come to Dubai