Maiter (model + waiter)
A “maiter” is a male model who is also a waiter. “The Secret Lives of Maiters” by Charlotte Cowles, published in New York magazine on May 24, 2012, helped popularize the term. Male models/actors had worked as waiters long before “maiter” was popularized in 2012-2013, and the New York article noted that “the maiter phenomenon has been happening for years.”
“Maître d’” is sometimes misspelled “maiter d,” possibly confusing the terms. After several “maiter” articles in 2012-2013, the term was mostly forgotten in 2014.
New York magazine
May 24, 2012 9:30 a.m.
The Secret Lives of Maiters
By Charlotte Cowles
A friend recently raved to us about a fancy party he’d attended where all the waiters looked like models. “It was so weird, these guys were all really tall and good-looking,” he marveled. “It was like an army of male models serving drinks!” We explained that these folks were known as maiters: male models (and sometimes actors) who do catering gigs for extra cashflow. They’re ubiquitous at fashion parties and other swish events that place a premium on having the waitstaff look pretty. “So they’re like, hot men who are getting paid to feed you and be nice to you?” our friend asked, amazed.
Indeed, the maiter phenomenon has been happening for years, and today’s Times delved deeper into the lives of these attractive men brandishing trays of Champagne and steak tartare.
Twitter
VFILES
@VFILES
Model + Waiter = Maiter
3 days til #MODELFILES season 2! @rjking3 collmorr @chaunsumlit http://instagram.com/p/Zd__ZZRfIa/
4:50 PM - 18 May 2013
Twitter
Ben
@fuckskeletonzz
only thing worse than a nodel is a maiter (model-waiter)
11:36 AM - 23 May 2013
The New Yorker
MAY 30, 2013
A Model Funeral
BY ALEXANDRA SCHWARTZ
(...)
Parodies of the fashion world are hardly a novelty, but “Model Files” has the distinction of being an inside job. The series was created last year by VFiles, a social network for fashion aficionados, and developed a following thanks in large part to (Preston—ed.) Chaunsumlit, thirty-three, who plays a charmingly hapless version of himself, an amiable dolphin swimming with the sharks of haute couture. In short, zippy episodes, Chaunsumlit runs after young mothers in SoHo, soliciting their children to model an Opening Ceremony baby line, and shoots a campaign for North Korean denim. He speaks breezily of “nodels” (not models) and “maiters” (model waiters), and instructs the men and women he hires for ad campaigns in the ways of the business (“Can you look more like a real person?”).
New York magazine
September 3, 2013 11:54 a.m.
Gorgeous Maiters
By Julie Ma
They’ve brought you an assortment of seemingly unending finger foods on shiny platters or followed you around a grassy lawn with fresh, bubbling drinks to quench your thirst — all while looking just like male models clad in dapper tuxes, straight out of a summer reverie induced by sun-nourished Hamptons bliss. They are the maiters of summer. And just like cheery snowmen that melt away into sad little puddles of water at the end of winter, a similar fate awaits the hordes of gorgeous male waiters.
Twitter
Jaquin Brooks
@JaquinBrooks
I miss my job ... Nothing like waiting tables ... I was the best Maiter (model + waiter) lol :D .… http://instagram.com/p/mQVEioN8Jg/
12:11 PM - 1 Apr 2014