San Francisco Chronicle (Sunday)
A DOZEN DEBUTANTES DEBUT IN SAN FRANCISCO.
On the very same day (Dec. 21) as the Cotillion Debutante Ball, Master
Joseph Michael “Tripp” Horwitz III celebrated his first birthday. Though he missed this white tieandtails, satinandlace scene later that evening at the Palace Hotel, his proud parents, Michael Horwitz and Cameron Phleger, were on hand.
“Tripp has already been invited to be a cotillion escort,” enthused his former debutante mom, with a laugh. “It’s only 17 years away.”
The class for the 78th cotillion was small yet mighty this year, as 12 young women made a formal curtsy to their social milieu.
Herewith, meet the 2019 debutantes: Charlotte Babbitt, Thea Donahoe, AnnaLiisa Eklund, Eloise Engs, Grace Ghiselli, Gianna Gunier, Frances Huebner, Katharine Huebner, Meredith Power, Natalie Towle, Kathryn
Treene and Kathleen Winnick.
“I don’t think there is a cotillion left in the United States where they still do the proper quadrille formations like it’s done in San Francisco,” noted Dede Wilsey, who, in 1961, was crowned Debutante of the Year by Town & Country Magazine. “It’s extraordinary they’ve kept the tradition of the escorts holding crossed canes, floral headpieces and the deep curtsy.”
Well, that’s thanks to the august ladies who helm the San Francisco Cotillion Club Committee — and everyone minds their social p’s and q’s when these former debutantes are on the dais.
This Gilded Era ritual always draws the Social Register set — a veritable Venn diagram of aunts, siblings, grandfathers, moms and cousinsonceremoved — comprised of founding San Francisco and Peninsula families, from Gold Rush kings to newspaper barons.
As the clock struck 10, bandleader
Laurent Fourgo fired up the classic tunes (think “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody”) as the hotel ballroom buzzed with excitement. Guided by the dashing redsashed gents (including Robert Regalado, Frank Kappler and Robert Gardner )of the Floor Committee, the debutantes, swathed in whitesatin gloves and gowns trimmed with spun sugarlike tulle, commenced intricate dance formations and curtsies with their escorts atop the parquet. Fashion producer Charleston
Pierce is now in his sixth year of leading the young ladies through their ballroom paces prior to the ball.
“With a smaller group, I was able to dig into more detail and embrace the whole process: from walk and stance to curtsy — that entire ‘Princess Diaries’ aura,” explained Pierce, an EssEff native. “When I was in high school at School of the Arts (now Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts), I worked in catering here at the Palace. Now, being part of this great San Francisco tradition feels like home.”
That feeling was even more true for Frances Huebner, who debuted just in front of her twin sister, Kath
arine.
“That support felt great. I could look right behind me and Katharine would smile, encouraging me. And all the women who previously debuted also supported us,” she said, beaming. “I’ll never forget walking out and curtsying before family and friends. Sharing that with my best friend, my twin sister, makes me very happy.”
But this night is as joyful for the guests, a majority of whom either debuted or served as the debutante’s dapper escorts.
Lyn Jason Cobb, a sixthgeneration San Franciscan, still fondly recalls her 1969 debut some 50 years ago.
“I love seeing so many generations of families, and continuing those connections from when my grandmother and mother made their debuts — then sharing that forward with our children and grandchildren,” said Cobb. “Even the clothes are familiar. My sister, Marianne Wal
ters, and I are wearing the Oscar de la Renta gowns we wore to the cotillion for our cousin, Laura Pfaff.”
For 1982 debutante Elizabeth
Thieriot, this blastfromherpast was a reminder of family tradition and heritage.
“I haven’t been to a cotillion since my own. I was the first debutante in two generations in the family of my father (Peter Thieriot),” she recalled. “But it means more now that my daughter, Charlotte, is a debutante. And it’s wonderful to see this tradition from the other side.” Former debutante Diana Donlon
Karlenzig and her family were out in force to cheer on her niece, Kath
ryn Treene. But she and her husband, Warren Karlenzig, boogied in the ballroom almost as late as the teens.
“The dance floor was packed when we left at 1:30 a.m.,” she said later. “My mom (Suzanne Donlon) danced with our son, Owen, and her night was made. My dad (the late
David Donlon, a storied twinkle toes of numerous cotillions) would’ve loved every minute.”