About

French Maid Outfits, otherwise known as Maid Outfits or Meido, as they are known in Japan, are a type of uniform based on that of a typical housemaid from the 19th century. Traditionally serving as a type of fetish uniform, pieces of fanart depicting female anime and video game characters in the outfits are common.

Origin

Maid outfits are loosely based on that of a typical French housemaid.^[1] They often consist of a black dress with white trim, an apron, a lace headdress, stockings, and high-healed shoes. While the French maid outfit is well known in the Western world, it is differenciated from a meido outfit by its emphasis on sexiness rather than cuteness.

The meido outfit is extremely popular in Japan. Its popularity began with the adult OVA Kuronekokan, which initially used it as a symbol of subservience.^[8] The visual novel Kara no naka no kotori broke this tradition, portraying a "happy" meido, and the Welcome to Pia Carrot series influenced the common perception of the outfit as "cute". In the late 90s, the outfit reached a wider following in the otaku community as maid cafes were formed in cities such as Tokyo.^[2] The outfit became a staple of cosplay in the 2000s.

Spread

A TV Tropes page on Meido was created in 2006.^[3] An Urban Dictionary definition of the term was created in 2008.^[4] The visual novel Nekopara was released in 2014, which popularly featured two catgirl meido as the romantic interests.^[7]

One popular practice of fanart artists is to create images of characters wearing the outfits, even if they were never seen doing such in their original portrayals. Over 30,000 images tagged "maid" can be found on both Pixiv and Danbooru.^[5][6]

Search Interest

References