These days it is not uncommon to see prominent cleavage shown in films set during the Regency era, most recently in ITV’s Mansfield Park, where the actress Billie Piper in the role of Fannie Price is dressed to show off her two best assets. Aside from her loose and riotous hair, with which I also find exception, this particular Fanny Price fails to exhibit in her daytime attire the modesty of character for which she is famously known. I understand the producers deliberately chose a livelier actress to play this rather stiff and morally upright heroine, but in my opinion they went overboard in “undressing” her.
In The Mirror of Graces a Lady of Distinction writes: “Indeed, in all cases, a modest reserve is essential to the perfection of feminine attraction.” The author goes on to caution young women to “throw a shadow over her yet-unimpaired charms, than to hold them in the light…” In other words, modesty was the key for daytime attire. Bosoms were to be entirely covered, and if the dresses were designed with a low scoop neckline, they were “filled in with a chemisette (a dickey made of thin material) or fichu (a thin scarf tucked into a low neckline). Unlike today, cleavage was NOT a daytime accessory.” Rakehell
In the image above, Catherine Morland (Felicity Jones) is shown in proper modest attire; her friend Isabella Thorpe (Carey Mulligan) is not. One imagines that the director and costume designer hoped to demonstrate the difference between the young ladies’ temperaments through visual cues, but I found this inaccuracy to historical detail distracting.
Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility clung to a much more accurate picture of the modesty women displayed in those times.
A woman’s assets could be revealed during the evening, however. Evening gowns allowed even a girl on the marriage mart to bare her bosom and arms, but she was also required to wear long evening gloves that came up high or over the elbow. In fact, James Gillray famously poked fun at the evening fashions of the day, depicting a slut dressed in evening attire without gloves. Shameless!
Despite Gillray’s satiric viewpoint, a young lady of quality would only dare to go so far and then would step no further, as shown in the rather chaste evening gown from Vintage Textiles below and in the fronticepiece of The Mirror of Graces.
Neoclassic silk evening gown with metallic trim, 1800
Evening Gowns, Fronticepiece of The Mirror of Graces
Read more about Regency Fashion on this Jane Austen Centre site: A Tour of Regency Fashion: Day and Evening Dress
In addition, click here in order to read all my posts on Regency Fashion.
Jane Austen's World 
My take is the same, and I use the following contemporary quote from 1811 to support this idea:
In the Mirror of Graces; or the English Lady’s Costume, published in London in 1811, the author (“a Lady of Distinction”) advised:
In the morning the arms and bosom must be completely covered to the throat and wrists. From the dinner-hour to the termination of the day, the arms, to a graceful height above the elbow, may be bare; and the neck and shoulders unveiled as far as delicacy will allow.
But at the same time I wouldn’t expect a movie, or mini-series, with its eye on funding etc to get it right since it needs to appeal to the general audience (and we all know they have no interest or understanding about this sort of thing).
[…] April 2, 2009 by Vic (Jane Austen’s World) The author of this recent post writes about the unfaithfully depicted hairstyles in recent period film adaptations. Her rant is similar to the one I wrote about inaccurate costumes in period films, especially in terms of showing or covering the bosom. […]
I’m certainly no expert on Regency fashion but I’m pleased to hear you say that the fashion was indeed inaccurate. I still haven’t watched Billie Piper’s Mansfield Park because she doesn’t look remotely like a Fanny Price… call me old-fashioned!
You and me both, Charley Brown! I defy anyone to state that Billie Piper’s costumes and hairstyles for Mansfield Park 2007 are historically accurate.
Just saying.
I was very tempted to turn off Mansfield Park but persevered to see if Fanny would deem her marriage sufficient occasion for finally combing her hair. She did not.