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Matching runs in my family.
My mother matched, and passed her love of matching on to me. To this day, I feel off‑kilter if my shoes don't match my bag, or if my scarf doesn't match (or at least co-ordinate) with some other item I am wearing.
However, in fashion circles there is nothing more tragic than being too “matchy-matchy” — it implies a lack of imagination and a tragically bourgeois upbringing that you have never quite managed to shake off.
That said, my matchy-matchiness extends only to my own outfits: I would never do something as disturbing as co‑ordinate my look with that of my husband or — even worse — my daughter. Pity poor Beatrice and Eugenie, forced to go clubbing with their mother wearing similar clothes.
When a mother dresses like her teenaged daughters you can be sure an ageing crisis lurks not far beneath the push-up bra.
That Gordon and Sarah Brown recently stepped out in co-ordinating shades of purple — she, a beret, he a tie — only goes to show just how much influence the Obamas are already exerting on our Prime Minister. The Obama family are well known for their deftly co-ordinated clothes: on election day all four of them were dressed neatly in black and red, and splendid indeed they looked in all the photographs.
As every good image consultant knows, colour co-ordination is visual shorthand for suggesting unity, teamwork and togetherness. These are the fuzzily warm words the Browns (or rather, their spin doctors) no doubt hoped to convey. Charles and Camilla aren't averse to a dose of it, either.
Matchy-matchiness doesn't just encompass colour co-ordination: when applied to couples, it can extend to their style of clothing, too. There can be no couple more in need of a public demonstration of unity, teamwork and togetherness than Gordon and Tana Ramsay — little surprise then that their first public appearance since the allegations of his affair surfaced saw them emerge wearing carefully twinned looks.
Their dear friends, the Beckhams, probably gave them some style tips, since they too are masters of the art of twinning. While nothing the Ramsays wore was identical, their jeans were the same mid-blue wash, their hair the same dirty blonde and their look a highly orchestrated take on homely “school run” chic. “Look at us!” they seemed to beam. “How could a woman in leopard print ever come between us, when all we ever wear is denim, navy and beige?”
How, indeed. Witness also the gradual twinning of Tom 'n' Katie: the more rumours swirl about marriage difficulties, the more Katie is pictured in jeans and a donkey jacket, so that she twins with Tom's favoured downbeat preppie look.
This sort of matchy-matchiness is spooky, and fooling nobody. If you want to get a life, get a style that clashes with your husband's, rather than one that suggests you are in his thrall.
Reader views (4)
Oh my dear Susannah, i remember very well. It was great and I love Richard Briers, who had such an amazing part to play.
And these Geeky neighbours with their alpine, hutchy, butchy Sweaters!
You´re so right ... says it all, indeed ... 
- John Pennyflame, Stratford on Avon, 07/12/2008 21:27
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Pathetic
- William, London, 06/12/2008 17:36
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Does anyone remember an old sitcom starring Richard Briers where he had a gormless, geeky pair of neighbours who always dressed in matching alpine sweaters? Says it all.
- Susannah, London UK, 06/12/2008 08:14
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Yuk
- Anglo, Sussex UK, 05/12/2008 17:32
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