Doppelgänger chic

Have you noticed that some teenage girls are starting to dress identically to each other? As in, twins. 

Fellow trendspotter and my doppelgänger Priyanka spotted a pair of rude girls in South London doing this, and we reckon it's quite a rude girl thing, perhaps because they love coordinating their outfits and the girl gang element to it. 

It's also particular to black girls. I came across a troupe of five teenage girls who synchronise hairstyles on a weekly basis. They're currently doing bouffants. 

This is a fully fledged trend in Asia which makes sense - they love cuteness and harmony. Asian labels such as Giordana, Baleno, and Samuel & Kevin have started capitalising on it by merchandising 'Double dresser' or 'Twinning', as this trend is known, outfits. 

When I probed further I discovered twins are becoming more prevalent in society. Older mums means a higher probablity of twins (due to hormone levels, IVF use) and in China, people have been getting round the one child only rule, by 'engineering' multiple births.

Could it be that in a more virtual world young people are craving the tangible bond twinship seems to offer? A report by Unicef shows that today's youths lack true friends, particularly children in the UK. 

Amy Harrison and Antonya Allen are a pair of Double dressers I spotted on the street and got talking to. Antonya is mixed race and well-spoken, Amy's white and slightly Cockney. They have a twin MySpace page and co-present web TV show, Bite. They say, 'All celebrities and high street clothes wearers look the same anyway. We've just taken it to a more extreme level. Double dressing almost makes too much sense.'

This post is taken from an article I wrote for THE magazine.