A French princess made her society debut at Le Bal des Débutantes in Paris this past week.
Princess Eugenie de Bourbon was one of twenty-one young women who made their debut this past weekend at the Shangri-La hotel.
Eugenie, 17, is the daughter of the legitimist pretender to the French throne, Louis de Bourbon, and his wife, Marie-Marguerite Vargas Santaella. Louis is known as King Louis XX by those who accept his claim.
The princess joined Apple Martin, daughter of Chris Martin and Gwenyth Paltrow, and Lucia Ponti, granddaughter of Sophia Loren, at the invite-only ball.
She was escorted to the event by Archduke Karóly-Konstantin of Austria, the nephew of the current head of the Austrian Imperial Family.
(You Tube still/ fair use)
Eugenie chose to wear a grey, strapless evening gown with gold details from Carolina Herrera for the evening. To stand out, she accessorised with a platinum, kokoshnik-style tiara.
While Eugenie is the eldest child of Louis and Marie-Marguerite, she would not be in line to the throne as Salic law does not recognise female descendants as heirs.
Le Bal was first held in 1958 in the summer at the Orangery at the Palace of Versailles. It was held until 1968 when worker uprisings saw it cancelled. The ball was not revived until 1992.
The event is both a social and philanthropic event. This year’s ball raised money for “Association of Cardiology Research from Fetus to Adult” (ARCFA) of the Necker Children’s Hospital and the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital in the US.
