With over a dozen different garments that one would wear in a day to be appropriately dressed for the occasion, a life of leisure was one that could be extremely costly. In addition to garment changes, the quality of the textiles used and how up-to-date they were with the current trends spoke volumes to the nineteenth-century viewer. Although this major focus is no longer part of our lives and the boundaries and rules of dress are shifting, the codes of appropriateness are still with us to a certain degree: garments meant for exercising, working or evening gala events are usually not interchangeable.

The sphere of public and private varied from our own and was detectable through fit: morning garments with less silhouette definition such as peignoirs, were not meant to be worn outside the confine of one's bedroom or boudoir. Once outside this realm, an interior gown or wrapper with greater silhouette definition could be worn in the home. As a general rule, silhouette definition increased with exposure to others. Even in the case of many interior and day gowns worn during pregnancy, a system of back or side lacing placed in the inner structure of the gowns provided a certain amount of fit and enabled current styles to be adapted for the purpose and worn afterwards. Interior gowns and wrappers were seldom created purposely for maternity wear and were an important part of a woman's wardrobe.

Unless ill or bedridden, women would change into day dresses as the morning progressed. After the first three decades of the century, higher necklines and long sleeves characterized day dresses. To cover the lower necklines of these early gowns, bertha or pelerine collars were worn to venture outside the home. Exercise was also a morning activity performed two or three hours after sunrise in order to avoid the unhealthy effect of the morning or evening dew or the blazing sun's effect on the complexion. As stated by the author of Regency Etiquette: The Mirror of Graces (1811) "exercise in the open air…may be almost always obtained, either on horseback or on foot, in fine weather; and when that is denied, in a carriage. Country air in the fields, or in the gardens, when breathed at proper hours, is the finest bracer of the nerves, and the surest brightener of the complexion."