September 27th, 2018

How do you develop a personal style if you have a twin? How important is it for twins to wear the same clothes? I spoke with three pairs of twins to find out about their life, their style, and how they choose their clothes.

“On April 1st, our parents found out that there would actually be two babies instead of one. They thought it was a joke because, before that day they were sure they would only have one girl.”

Ada and Maria were born in Craiova on April 9, 1996. They had many friends and a happy childhood until the age of 11, when they moved from Craiova to Constanta (Romania). “Then we realized how hard it was to make friends, and how lucky we were as twin sisters.”

Their clothes through time

During their childhood, Ada and Maria were being dressed identically by their parents. Even their hair accessories were the same. “I remember we had some overalls that I’ve always thought were like sleeping bags. One of the overalls was orange and I was wearing it with a white blouse with stars on it. We were also attached to some Tom and Jerry tracksuits and some pink costumes with butterflies on them”, Ada recalls.

“Our parents wanted us to dress alike, but it was hard to find identical clothes back then. So we ended up wearing clothes that had the same design but different colors. I remember that my sister always wore green, and I was always wore pink. We sometimes used to switch colors, just so we could watch our parents panic when they couldn’t tell who is who”, Maria adds.

When school started, Ada and Maria realized that clothes were important, but they weren’t able to choose for themselves how they would dress, their parent decided for them. It was frustrating because in school they had to wear was an imposed uniform, and at home imposed clothes.

During middle school, Ada and Maria experienced a different phase – trying to look more mature.

“When we were 15-16 years old, we tried following fashion trends. Since we were not allowed to buy expensive clothes, we chose trendy clothes from second-hand stores. And we did this in a very discreet way, otherwise we would have been the but of all jokes.”

In high school, they bought their first clothes from the mall. Ada bought a Lee Cooper pair of jeans, which she has actually kept in her wardrobe right until now. She matched the jeans with T-shirts, plaid shirts and sneakers, “because we had to dress like Axl Rose. We were in a rock-and-roll phase back then.”

Maria had a passion for long blazers, colorful jerseys and rock band T-shirts. “I listened to a lot of rock music and we wore shirts over t-shirts, jeans and sneakers.”

Maria saw Ada as a romantic. She preferred fine dresses, blouses or skirts that feminized her look. Ada saw Maria as the introvert who wore clothes in layers. “She was wearing jackets, coats, long dresses, basically anything that covered her body.”

At the end of high school, Ada and Maria started to have a sense of fashion and a stylistic identity. Now they live in Bucharest, Romania, they’re passionate about fashion, and they’ve started the “My Sister’s Wardrobe” project. “When we started this project, we had just found out that our grandmother used to run a second-hand store in her youth. We love to shop from second-hand and vintage stores and we do like to experimenting with different styles.”

Ada now wears 90% second-hand clothing. She very rarely buys online or from shopping malls. Her style is romantic and in the future she feels that she will be wearing a lot of minimalist items. “Those who inspire me a lot are Leandra Medine Cohen from Man Repeller, and from Romania there’s Cristina Săvulescu.”

Maria believes her style has changed a lot due to the “My Sister’s Wardrobe” project. Still, she has kept her obsessions – accessories, red fingernails and 70’s outfits. “We have more appreciation for the clothes we wear, the quality fabrics, the special cuts versus clothing brands. And even though we don’t wear identical clothes anymore, our wardrobe is still a shared one and always will be.”

Photo credit: Simona Petrica