The modern equivalent of a Regency morning dress would be the ratty sweats and old college T-shirt you wear while dying your hair. Fine for around the house, but you'd NEVER wear them in front of anyone. A morning gown worked on the same principle. It was a plain, generally unadorned gown that was never worn out of the house.
Because it was never worn outside, morning dresses were usually made of thin material and had no trimmings. Sometimes, they were made from older fabric, the kind with large flower prints that had been so popular in the last few decades of the 18th century. Most families would have had fabric like this lying around, either in remnants or old dresses. It made sense to reuse this fabric for dresses that would never be seen by anyone outside of family. Why, with all the money they saved in this way, they could buy more fashionable dresses for public viewing!
Other than that, they were pretty much indistinguishable from any other type of dress. They were made in the same style, certainly, with a high waist and long or short sleeves. But again, because it was never worn out of the house, a morning dress wouldn't necessarily be in the first stare of fashion. Morning dresses didn't always have long trains, for instance, even when they were popular. It wasn't unusual for a Regency miss to salvage the trim from a gone-out-of-style dress, use the trim on a new dress, and keep the old one as a morning dress. The modern equivalent of a Regency morning dress would be the ratty sweats and old college T-shirt you wear while dying your hair. Fine for around the house, but you'd NEVER wear them in front of anyone. A morning gown worked on the same principle. It was a plain, generally unadorned gown that was never worn out of the house.
Because it was never worn outside, morning dresses were usually made of thin material and had no trimmings. Sometimes, they were made from older fabric, the kind with large flower prints that had been so popular in the last few decades of the 18th century. Most families would have had fabric like this lying around, either in remnants or old dresses. It made sense to reuse this fabric for dresses that would never be seen by anyone outside of family. Why, with all the money they saved in this way, they could buy more fashionable dresses for public viewing!
Other than that, they were pretty much indistinguishable from any other type of dress. They were made in the same style, certainly, with a high waist and long or short sleeves. But again, because it was never worn out of the house, a morning dress wouldn't necessarily be in the first stare of fashion. Morning dresses didn't always have long trains, for instance, even when they were popular. It wasn't unusual for a Regency miss to salvage the trim from a gone-out-of-style dress, use the trim on a new dress, and keep the old one as a morning dress.
http://www.rakehell.com/article.php?id=387&Title=Introduction-To-Regency-Dress
