Tea at Trianon: The Return of the Masked Ball

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, July 18, 2013

The Return of the Masked Ball

From The Telegraph:

Who would have predicted that masked balls would become a trend in 2013? Ruby-encrusted eyewear and Marie-Antoinette-inspired dresses are not generally considered a sensitive look during recessions - a point not lost even on the Kardashians.

Cecil Beaton was appalled when he discovered that Truman Capote was planning one in the summer of 1966. "What is Truman trying to prove?" he wrote testily in his tell-all diary. "The foolishness of spending so much time organising the party is something for a younger man or a worthless woman to indulge in, if they have social ambitions."

Beaton, who valiantly overcame his misgivings to attend Capote's party along with most of the elite of the day, may have been right, but not entirely. Capote's party made social history. It's as famous in certain circles as his novels. Mission accomplished.

IN PICS: French Vogue's 90th anniversary masked ball

Those masks surely contributed to Capote's lasting mystique. There's something compelling about an invitation that requires disguise - the suggestion of an Eyes Wide Shut moment. Yet it's seven years since the last grand one, hosted by photographer Nick Knight and sponsored by Moët & Chandon at Strawberry Hill, Sir Horace Walpole's giddily Gothic castle in Twickenham. Beaton would have been even more outraged by the sponsorship than the time-wasting that went into some of those masks. Even Pete Doherty remembered to wear one.

Since then, it's been lean pickings on the masked-ball front, sponsored or otherwise. But now, suddenly, two in the same week. Yes, along with sustained British sporting success, the masked ball is a fantastical mirage taking solid shape. First Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana host a spectacular one last Saturday in Palazzo Pisani Moretta, a terracotta-coloured renaissance palace - also with Gothic flourishes - on Venice's Grand Canal. Guests arrived by boat and gondola. Candlelight was the order of the evening, the diamonds real and not borrowed, and the beaded dresses couture. (Read entire post.)