Charm Hostess and Mannequin School

Women are put through their deportment paces and all in the name of etiquette.

The Charm Hostess and Mannequin School opens in Exeter and its president Mary Stevens is interviewed. The school offers classes on deportment, customs and manners for women. The hosting industry is an important part of the service economy and many women in the 1960s aspired to become models and if not, air hostesses, waitresses and stewardesses, ironically just as women’s role in society was changing. Today they are stewards, servers, hosts or Maîtres d’Hôtel.

Finishing schools are often located in Switzerland around Lake Geneva such as Brilliantmont or Chateau Mont-Chosis, the Insitut Alpin Videmanette or Mon Fertile and offer young ladies a chance to round off their upper class education, where social graces and behaviourial norms are taught. Many establishments have converted to international schools for the children of the rich and wealthy. Debrett’s are a world-famous institution and they publish a guide to British etiquette and offer coaching classes in etiquette and protocol, confidence and deportment and help individuals or businesses to develop social skills, etiquette is one possibly uniquely and quintessentially British export.