Dressing Alike
The twins accidentally dressed like twins one day, wearing the same t-shirt and shorts, and didn’t notice until late in the day when we commented that they were dressed identically. The same thing happened the next day, except the ChickieNob and I both got dressed without seeing the other one and ended up in Breton shirts and overalls. The third day in a row, it was the twins again in identical shirts and jeans. The rest of the week, everyone was really careful to peek outside the bedroom before going downstairs.
Anne Helen Petersen recently had a piece on mother-daughter dresses. It was my first time hearing the term “nap dress,” but I got the concept instantly. It’s a simple dress, and in this case, she’s highlighting the trend of producers to create two versions—a child-sized one and an adult-sized one.
Historically, these mother-daughter dresses have exploded in popularity in times when culture, as a whole, was occupied with reasserting the strength of both the nation and the domestic sphere. Historian Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell traces the first instance of high fashion mother-daughter matching to 1908, but it wasn’t until the late 1930s, when the United States was just beginning emerge from the ravages of The Great Depression, that what Life called “the mother-and-daughter custom” became popular.
It’s kind of a weird idea, especially when it pops up in societies that simultaneously value and promote individuality. We’ve never been a dress-like-each-other home (even if, strangely enough, the ChickieNob and I both own Breton shirts and overalls), especially not the twins when they were little, though it has inadvertently happened to them sometimes after years of getting the same camp or event t-shirts. I also don’t remember ever matching with my mum, though I always wanted to match with my sister. (Which only happened with a t-shirt or two.)
Maybe I see the trend in another light due to infertility; that it feels in some ways the same as baby clothes—sections of box stores I still avoid. So I read the article feeling a little raw.
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Given that my older sisters qualify as “Irish twins” (kids born 13 months apart or less) (my “Irish twin” is 15 months older, so a little outside the boundaries), my mom thought matching dresses for family pictures would be good. My two older sisters would match and then my next older sister and I would match. I guess my older sisters were much more suggestible, since it didn’t happen once I was old enough to demand my own style (around age 5 – which would have made my oldest sister 13) (not that I have any style). None of us would ever have worn the same thing as our mother, though.
My husband and I both wore White Sox shirts the other day. That was weird because he’s a Cardinals fan.
We don’t have a ton of photos from my childhood in the 70s but in most my sister (3 years older) and I were dressed in identical outfits. Maybe it was a thing then or easier to buy clothes that way? My kids (2 years apart and closer in size) sometimes on their own like to match although there’s only a few items that both have (sometimes if I sense there will be jealousy I will buy them the same tshirt or something). Never done the mother daughter thing… the closest we’ve come is having everyone wear something in the same color scheme for a family portrait.
My younger (by 21 months) sister & I dressed alike when we were kids… partly because I think it was easier (initially, at least) for our mom to buy two of the same thing at once (or, say, the same thing but red for me and blue for her or something like that) — but also because if one didn’t get exactly the same thing the other would feel gypped and complain. We outgrew that by the time we were in our teens, lol — although we still had a lot of the same or similar things in our closet. We’d both show up at breakfast wearing the same thing and then it would be “I HAD MINE ON FIRST!!” and one of us would have to change, lol.
My mom has sometimes liked something I’ve had on and bought the same thing, but we live far apart enough that we won’t show up in the same place wearing the same outfit. I found the mother-daughter dresses in Anne Helen Petersen’s article a little creepy, to be honest. I’ve never quite gotten the “family pajamas” thing at Christmastime either — matching PJs for the kids, okay, but the parents too?
The closest I think dh & I have come to matching is wearing similar Canada Day T-shirts on Canada Day 150 a few years ago — and I’m surprised he actually wore his when I suggested it!
I didn’t dress alike with my brothers but my daughters sometimes do. It’s typically inadvertent though occasionally on purpose. They have identical sets of pajamas bought by my parents which little sister loves big sister tolerates. I can see how dressing alike can be fun but also tiresome if you have a little sib constantly wanting to be just like you. As for mother daughter wear, I think it’s cute but not for me. But some of that stems from the inherent attention getting aspect of wearing something obviously matching. I don’t want to be noticed or commented on when out and about (when we used to be out and about). The trend is fascinating however.
With my brother it would make me feel like we were ‘on the same team’ if we would dress the same. We were allowed to pick and choose our own clothes and would pick one outfit in different colours (red and blue) Fond memories of the sailor tunics
Growing up in the 1970s, my mom often dressed my sister and I in similar — but not identical — outfits for special occasions and photos. (Think: the same outfit, but one of us wearing pink and the other lavender.)
Despite also being a mother of twins, I have never gone in much for matching clothing for my children beyond the infant years, although one of my sons recently suggested that I buy a T-shirt that matched one I bought for him, and he is tickled when we were them on the same day.