Regency Dress of the Month: March

Morning Dress, Ackermann's
Morning dress were generally plain and allowed for ease of movement. Generally, they were worn with a cap, as seen in the image above, and the arms and chest were covered. Morning dresses were appropriate both for remaining at home or for early (before noon) walks or carriage rides in the park. The lady above is no doubt working on her morning correspondence, perhaps responding to an invitation or communicating with friends back at home if it is during the London season.

From Regency Etiquette: The Mirror of Graces (1811)
"There are a race of women, who, priding themselves on their superior rank, or wealth, or talents, affect to despise what they deem the adventitious aids of dress. When this folly is seen in female authors, or, what is much the same thing, ladies professing a particularly literary taste, we can at once traces its motive. Wishing to be thought superior to founding any regard on external ornament, they forget external decency; and by slatternness and affectation, render, what is called a learned woman, a kind of scare-crow of her own sex, and a laughing-stock to the other. This error is not so common now with bookish ladies, as it was in the beginning of the last century. Then our sex did, indeed, show that 'a little learning is a dangerous thing.'"