Morning Dresses

Last Update 25 December 2000

Morning dress is basically the most plain type of dress a fashionable lady wore. Morning dress was worn indoors with a cap, cap-bonnet (also called a capote), turban, or veil. Bonnets, hats, capotes, turbans, and veils would also be worn outside. Caps would usually be worn under the bonnet and hat. Sometimes bandeaus would be worn with morning dress, but usually if so, these bandeaus were made of shawls or scarfs, often with feathers, rather than jewels. Gold, silver, diamonds, and colored gems and elaborate colorful embroidery were usually seen as vulgar in morning dress, which was to be plain. Given the competition of the fashionable world, however, morning dresses could get very elaborate. Although prints were fairly common for morning dress, they are perhaps not seen as much in fashion plates because of the difficulty of painting or depicting the pattern.

Morning Dress, June 1794 from The Gallery of Fashion. These dresses are labelled "A Peep into Kensington Gardens." The gowns are appropriate for fashionable morning walks in the parks.

Morning Dress, July 1794 from The Gallery of Fashion. These dresses are also shown in a park.

Morning Dress, August 1794 from The Gallery of Fashion. These dresses are morning carriage dress, shown in a phaeton. This differs from more formal carriage dress and is labelled "en negligç." These ladies are out for a morning drive in a high-perch phaeton. They wear plain calico morning dresses and ribbon and feather-trimmed bonnets. Note the striped dye on one of the ostrich feathers. The high-perch phaeton was extremely dangerous--no doubt one reason why it was so fashionable! It was also very expensive to keep, so only the most wealthy and daring lady would be seen out in a London park tooling in such a vehicle.

Morning Dress, September 1794 from The Gallery of Fashion. These ladies could be in a private garden or, more likely, in one of London's fashionable parks on a morning walk.

Morning Dress, October 1794 from The Gallery of Fashion. These ladies are in a park on a morning walk with some buildings visible in the distance. Some of London's parks in the regency period had private homes inside them. A distant view, such as these ladies have from the small hillock they are on, was considered a very desirable thing, a good goal for a walk.

Morning Dress, November 1794 from The Gallery of Fashion. I love this image of ladies breakfasting with a silver tea service in their white morning gowns trimmed with cherry ribbon. On their heads they wear caps also trimmed with cherry ribbon. The lady on the left reads her morning correspondence, in a gown that features a short, cozy jacket with lace trim over a petticoat with matching lace trim.

GO TO PAGE TWO OF MORNING DRESSES

GO TO PAGE THREE OF MORNING DRESSES

GO TO PAGE FOUR OF MORNING DRESSES

To Return to the Regency Fashion Page

To Return to the Regency Page

	Morning Dress, June 1794 from The Gallery of Fashion. These dresses are labelled "A Peep into Kensington Gardens." The gowns are appropriate for fashionable morning walks in the parks.
	Morning Dress, July 1794 from The Gallery of Fashion. These dresses are also shown in a park.
	Morning Dress, August 1794 from The Gallery of Fashion. These dresses are morning carriage dress, shown in a phaeton. This differs from more formal carriage dress and is labelled "en negligç." These ladies are out for a morning drive in a high-perch phaeton. They wear plain calico morning dresses and ribbon and feather-trimmed bonnets. Note the striped dye on one of the ostrich feathers. The high-perch phaeton was extremely dangerous--no doubt one reason why it was so fashionable! It was also very expensive to keep, so only the most wealthy and daring lady would be seen out in a London park tooling in such a vehicle.
	Morning Dress, September 1794 from The Gallery of Fashion. These ladies could be in a private garden or, more likely, in one of London's fashionable parks on a morning walk.
	Morning Dress, October 1794 from The Gallery of Fashion. These ladies are in a park on a morning walk with some buildings visible in the distance. Some of London's parks in the regency period had private homes inside them. A distant view, such as these ladies have from the small hillock they are on, was considered a very desirable thing, a good goal for a walk.
	Morning Dress, November 1794 from The Gallery of Fashion. I love this image of ladies breakfasting with a silver tea service in their white morning gowns trimmed with cherry ribbon. On their heads they wear caps also trimmed with cherry ribbon. The lady on the left reads her morning correspondence, in a gown that features a short, cozy jacket with lace trim over a petticoat with matching lace trim.