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From piquant comedies of social manners to hushed, psychosexual period pieces, there’s a particular flavour to films that prominently feature the maid’s uniform. The sartorial details are familiar to us all, thanks to fancy dress shops and the popularity of : a black dress, a white pinafore-style apron and a little matching cap. Decorative flourishes and apron lengths have altered over the centuries, but a maid’s clothing is (1964), replete with a sullen sexiness and feather duster, or an unstable Kathy Bates in Stephen King adaptation (1995), donning a more modernised blue and yellow pinny, we know what to expect from women in these outfits. Female domestic help were meant to be subservient, self-effacing and presentable: their uniforms both identified and depersonalised their role as a member of a near-invisible social stratum.