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Elaine has been involved with textiles in various practices since she could thread a needle, and in recent years has developed an academic interest, studying aspects of dress and identity and graduating with her masters degree in 2002. She is currently working on her doctorate while employed as a teaching fellow in Clothing and Textile Sciences at the University of Otago, teaching social aspects of dress. Her current areas of research are dress and identity, uniforms, and material culture, while her wider interests include method, theory and meaning.
The boudoir cap had a lifespan of about fifty years, arising as a distinct dress expression in the last decades of the nineteenth century, encompassing an era of radical change in the social roles and expectations of women in New Zealand. During this time evolving styles reflected these variations, and can be understood both as expressions of the culture that created them and also as tools in the negotiation of new realities.
The boudoir cap was worn by women in the boudoir, a lady's private space within the home to which only intimates were admitted. The actual boudoir was a luxury enjoyed by only a minority of Dunedin women, but boudoir caps were worn by many women, so that through the boudoir cap the concept of the boudoir was available to all as symbolic consumption.
Originating in the tradition of covering the hair, the caps were strongly associated with the conventions of modesty and control of sexuality. The boudoir cap was instrumental in the construction of the feminine ideal, and reflects changes in this ideal over time.
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