Regency Fashion

The enduring appeal of Regency England is captured here in a range of fashion prints which show the elegance of fashion in both its simplicity and its extravagance. High-quality prints of fashionable dress were produced by Rudolph Ackermann, Nicolas Heideloff and Madame Lanchester and examples of all three can be seen on these pages. 

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During the Regency period, the terms Full Dress, Half Dress, and Undress were used to describe the type of dress worn for different occasions. To be active in Society a large wardrobe was essential. Broadly speaking, Full Dress included Court Dress, Evening Dress, and Ball Dress and necklines were characteristically low.  

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Undress encompassed most dresses worn during the day and included Morning Dress, Promenade Dress, Carriage Dress and Riding Dress.

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Half Dress  hovered somewhere in between in its degree of formality. It was habitually worn in the late afternoon and early evening and occasionally later in the evening, if the occasion was not strictly formal. Afternoon Dresses were often considered as Half Dress but so were Dinner and Opera dresses as neither dinner parties nor theatre were treated as formal occasions.

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Mourning Dress constituted a separate category with its own rules and straddled all three categories.