Early on, I didn’t give a lot of thought as to whether or not I would be dressing the twins alike. As it turned out, two relatives gave us (no joke) and attic full of hand-me-down girls clothes. We had way more clothing then our two girls were going to need-praise the Lord! So, out of necessity, most of the outfits the girls weren’t matching because the hand-me-downs hadn’t come from twins.
From the time the girls were still in my tummy I knew that I’d be using pink to designate things that were strictly ‘Madeline’s’ and purple for things that were ‘Emily’s’: Madeline’s blanket and pacifiers were pink, Emily’s were purple. It just made things easier. Also, friends and family wanted to know what my “colors” were for their nursery so that they could buy gifts and make blankets that matched my theme. Now that they are almost 3 (yikes!), I’ve learned a thing or two about dressing twins alike.
Some pros for dressing twins alike:
They’re easier to pick out of a crowd when their outfits are identical.
You’ve seen those families at Disneyland, right? You know, the folks who are all wearing the same bright orange “celebrating big sister’s birthday” T-shirts? Well, there’s a reason they do that! If you have wiggly little ones (i.e. twin toddlers), it really helps when you can quickly locate a matching pair of children.
It may lower the chances you’ll get peppered with “are they twins?” questions while you’re out.
People take one look at your same-sized children with the same-sized, same-colored clothing on, and presume that they are, in fact, twins.
It makes shopping easier-just grab 2 of everything!
I’ve met quite a few families that shop this way, actually. It takes forever to do back to school shopping for multiple children. As long as they don’t mind, why not get them all the same clothing?
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No fighting over who gets the brown skirt if there are 2 of them!
Ever since they could communicate, one of the girls is usually be dead set against wearing something. I’m not sure if this is a girl thing, or just my twins. But having matching outfits often cuts down on the arguments over what to wear.
Some cons for dressing twins alike:
Hand-me-downs from singletons don’t fit in with the ‘everything matches’ plan.
In the beginning, I wanted the girls to ALWAYS match. But then we got that huge shipment of hand-me-downs which I just couldn’t pass up. We ended up going with Plan B, where Madeline wears reds, pinks, and some blues and Emily wears purples, greens, yellows, and some blues. This honestly probably stems from my possessiveness, which I blame on being one of six kids. 🙂
There aren’t usually 2 of everything on a sale rack.
A big downside to having twins in all-matching clothing is that… It’s expensive. So if you are bargain shopping, chances are VERY likely that you will not find two of the very same outfit in the very same size. Yet another reason why we went with Plan B.
Your twins will stand out more, and everyone will ask you if they are twins.
Basically, whether you dress your twins alike or not, people are always going to ask you if they are twins. So, new mothers of twins, this is just something you have to get used to. If you can’t think of something nice (or funny) to say, try these suggestions.
You can only dress them the way you want to for so long.
Of course I want my children to develop their own identities. And I really don’t think that the way that I dressed them as a toddler is going to make them live out one identity over another. And as soon as they don’t like being dressed alike, I’ll let them pick their clothing. But right now they are three, and they really love each other. Thankfully, so far it hasn’t been an issue. When it does they’ll be old enough to dress themselves and I’ll just be thankful I’m not having to stuff bendy little feet into skinny little jeans anymore.
My original “the-twins-will-always-match-100%-forever-and-ever-the-end” mentality only lasted so long. What we ended up with was one girl who prefers pink and the other one who prefers purple. And when neither of those options are available I like to buy outfits that are alike but different. Kohl’s and Target have great mix and match options so I can have both girls in polkadot leggings and a little tunic that are very similar but different colors. In reality though, I don’t shop very often. I just love hand-me-downs and hate to see good clothing go to waste, which means we are fortunate enough to have plenty of clothing for the girls!
Now if I could just get my 12-year-old on board with wearing hand-me-downs… Well, you can’t win ’em all. 😉
