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Cosplayer in a French maid costume, Tokyo.

Japanese style French maid cosplay in Hong Kong, with court shoes (pumps), sleeveless tank tops, miniskirts and exposed garters for a sexual attraction.

French maid refers to a strongly modified style of servant’s dress that evolved from typical maids’ black and white afternoon uniforms of the nineteenth century (and their later use by stereotypical characters in risqué burlesque dramas of the bedroom farce variety). The designs of the French maid dress can range widely from a conservative look to very revealing. It is now often associated with cosplay, sexual roleplaying, and fetishism. Depending on design details, some forms can be classified as lingerie.

[edit] Wear

The costumes are frequently worn to costume parties, and also used in drama/theater. They are sometimes worn for sexual roleplaying or by BDSM practitioners, either on brief occasions, or as a routine form of servitude to the dominant partner.

Among cross-dressing female-dominated men, there is also an extensive Sissy (transgender) subculture with men roleplaying as submissive "sissy maids" wearing a feminine French maid costume.

French Maid costumes also feature in mainstream media from time to time. Notable films include Joanne Whalley in The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997), and Colleen Camp as a sexy French maid in Clue (film) (1985), a murder mystery spoof in which she becomes a suspect, and later, a victim. In Friends with Money (2006), Jennifer Aniston dresses as a French maid for her boyfriend, first vacuuming and using a feather duster, then making love whilst still in costume, thus fulfilling all the elements of the standard fantasy role. Aniston played the maid seductress again in a guest role on the 3rd episode of the 3rd season of the NBC TV series 30 Rock. And on the Desperate Housewives series, Lynette (Felicity Huffman) wears a French maid outfit she bought at a lingerie store to spice up her marriage.^[1]

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Soubrette
• Clothing fetish