Uniforms
By Eunice Farmer
Fantasy uniforms are fun, are not difficult to find, but can hardly be mistaken for the real thing. How astonished would we be, for example, to go into hospital to find ourselves treated by women in sex shop nurses' uniforms. There is enough of the nurse to them for us to grasp the general idea, but there's no danger of us confusing the wearers with real nurses. The impression they give is of tarts indulging their clients' nurse-related fantasies.
Fantasy nurses' uniforms are probably not the examples most commonly found. All, or almost all, of the available maids' uniforms seem to come into this category. Not all of these are equally removed from the things that real maids might wear. I have a lot of doubt as to whether anyone who hired a girl to do the housework ever dressed that girl in satin. But satin seems more likely than PVC, in spite of the latter being easier to clean.
The reasons for PVC seeming so improbable for real maids, of course, must include the fact that shiny plastic clothing only made its first appearance in the 1960s, well after the heyday of real maids. Perhaps more significant is the way in which PVC had only a short life as a material for ordinary female wear.
The fate of my youngest sister's mid 1960s PVC coat may throw some light on the material losing favour. Passing on front of a - then common - paraffin heater, a large hole appeared in the easily-melted material. Since then, PVC has been pretty well exclusively seen as fetish wear.
And of course, the fabrics of fantasy uniforms are chosen not with an eye to the stuff of real uniforms, but because they are - in themselves - popular materials. Nothing wrong with popular materials of course, there is always a reason for their popularity.
I referred to the 1960s as being well after the heyday of real maids. This may give a clue as to why every maid's uniform I've seen has been a fantasy one, whereas most of the schoolgirl uniforms available are better characterised as authentic (of which more later). Unless you count the likes of hotel chambermaids, I've never seen a real maid. Hotel chambermaids are likely to wear tabards rather than the typical maid's uniform
Fantasy uniforms can be very satisfying, there is no reason why they shouldn't be. Essentially, when transvestites dress in uniform, they do so as part of a fantasy. If a uniform is specially designed for that fantasy, it ought to be able to support it precisely. Being a real nurse is hard work, and the uniforms reflect that fact. Being a fantasy nurse is a piece of frolicking: the fantasy uniforms reflect this in the same way.
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