Maid

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Reason: The history section is mostly ripped off from Wikipedia's entry on "French maid".

Sensitive Content Notice ⚠️

The following article contains and discusses content that may be distressing to some readers.
Reason for Warning: The following aesthetic within this article contains descriptions of sexually suggestive content that may not be suitable for younger viewers. Viewer Description is advised.

Maid, sometimes also called Maidcore, is an aesthetic based around maid outfits and things in media related to maids. The aesthetic is mostly based around the common outfits and activities of a maid, but does change depending on the type of person who has the aesthetic: i.e. some maid aesthetics are more sexual, while others are more proper. The aesthetic is commonly seen in certain anime as well as themed restaurants popular in Japan and other east Asian metropolitan areas, however, it first occurred as a French phenomenom.

History[]

French maid was a term applied in the Victorian and early 20th century periods to a lady's maid of French nationality. A lady’s maid was a senior servant who reported directly to the lady of the house, and accompanied her mistress on travel. She helped her mistress with her appearance, including make-up, hairdressing, clothing, jewelry, and shoes, and sometimes served as confidante. A maid of French nationality was considered likely to be more expert in current fashions, and was also able to apply her knowledge of the French language when travelling in Europe.

Erotic fantasies revolving around young French women later led to the appearance of French maids as desirable and stereotypical soubrette characters in burlesque dramas and bedroom farces.

The term French maid is now often applied to an eroticized and strongly modified style of servant's dress that evolved from typical housemaid's black-and-white afternoon uniforms of 19th-century France, despite a housemaid being junior to a lady’s maid. Some styles are conservative while others are revealing. The French maid costume is often used in cosplay, sexual roleplaying, and uniform fetishism. Depending on design details, some forms can be classified as lingerie.^[1]

Visuals[]

Visuals for the Maid aesthetic must include maid dresses or other elements of clothing that are associated with maid attire. The edits also often include cute and/or anime themes - which is the reason why Animecore and Kawaii are related aesthetics. Maid is a fashion-based aesthetic, so backgrounds and additional elements in imagery is supposed to emphasize clothing.

In addition to the commonly depicted proper and cute maids, a subset of Maid embraces a more unconventional portrayal of maids by delving into the darker themes of how the life of a maid may not be as perfect as it seems. The maid outfits may be modified to incorporate edgier fashion elements, such as leather accents, corsets, or fishnet stockings. Maids depicted in this subset of Maid may be shown engaging in activities that defy traditional cute aesthetics associated with Maid, instead partaking in more mature actions such as smoking cigarettes and standing in alleyways.

Fragance[]

Because maids are mainly associated with Maid Cafes, gardens and mansions, and/or eroticism, some fragrance types that suit the maid aesthetic well might be gourmand and spicy fragrances (popular notes of which being coffee, honey, cinnamon, and cacao), as well as floral, woody, and oriental fragrances (popular notes of which being rose, jasmine, sandalwood, and incense).

Examples:

Carolina Herrera Good Girl
Chanel Coco Mademoiselle
Giorgio Armani Si
Guerlain Shalimar
Lancme La Vie est Belle
Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille
Versace Crystal Noir
Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb
Yves Saint Laurent Black Opium
Yves Saint Laurent Libre Le Parfum

Fashion[]

Alterations to any of the items listed below is common to fit a desired look/aesthetic.

Maid dresses
Thigh-high socks (especially stockings with ruffles at the top)
Black Mary Jane shoes
White gloves
Face masks
Headbands (ex. maid headdress, cat ears)

Media[]

TV Shows[]

Akiba Maid War
And Yet The Town Moves
Emma: A Victorian Romance
Hanaukyo Maid Team
Hand Maid May
Is the Order a Rabbit?
Kobayashi's Dragon Maid
Maid-sama
Mahoromatic
Shounen Maid
The Duke of Death and his Maid
The Maid I Hired Recently Is Mysterious
Tokyo Mew Mew
UzaMaid!

Characters[]

Kirumi Tojo (Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony)
Any character from NekoPara

Music[]

Artists incorporating maid outfits include:

Band-Maid
- (Sub Unit) Band-Maiko

Maidcore Artists[]

Exist a group of musicians with "The Maid" on their artist names like: Yakui the Maid or Chikoi the Maid. Originally based in Nijiura Maids, a memes from the Japanese website Futaba Channel.

Maidcore IS NOT A MUSIC GENRE!

Every maid have their own sound or style, and is not limited by a specific genre or rythm. Some maids play hardcore subgenres, other post rock, dark ambient, electronic music, and more...

Each maid has her own sound or style, and is not limited by a specific genre or beat. But they are generally associated with dark or melancholic sounds such as post-rock, dark ambient, hardcore subgenres...

See Breakcore#Maidcore for more information.

Activities[]

Maid cafes were started due to the popularity of maids in various forms of media. A cosplaying themed restaurant, these cafes are where you can find female servers (usually late teens to mid twenties) dress as maids while tending to patrons. The common attire for the staff is that of a French maid, though there can be other themes (i.e.: Victorian style, Modern-traditional kimono mix and Cat maid) as well. You can order both food and services from menus provided; these services are flirty on occasion but non-sexual. Guests must adhere to the rules of the café or else they'll be escorted out. Akihabara was the first city to host a permanently established maid café in 2001. A male form of this style of restaurant, Butler cafés, exists as well.