I’m sure this has happened to most everyone. There was probably a time when you were out at a club, or the movies, or the mall, or at school, and you suddenly noticed that someone was wearing an item identical to what you were wearing. Maybe the same dress, sweater, shoes, t-shirt…
Whatever it was, that sudden, awful realization made you think, “Oh no!” and caused you to want to hide under a table or run screaming from the room.
It really is a horrible feeling. Trust me, I know, it’s happened to me on a few occasions.
I’ve also been witness to it happening to others. For example, in my university filmmaking class, which had no more than 25 people in it, two guys had the exact same sweater on. It was blue, with a huge horizontal stripe in the middle. Hard to miss.
These two dudes were sitting a couple of rows apart, wearing the exact same sweater. I’m not sure if they knew it or not, but even if they did, there wasn’t much they could have done about it. Except maybe tear it off hastily and set it on fire, which would have gotten less stares. The other classmates must have thought it was “dress up as twins” day.
I sat at the back of the room, staring at these poor dudes for the better part of an hour, thinking “Man, I sure as hell am glad I didn’t wear my blue sweater with the huge horizontal stripe today!”
So, can you remember a time when someone else was wearing the same thing as you? And how did you handle it?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
This can be a problem in Tokyo if you wear some of the popular design t-shirt brands like UT, Graniph, or Beams T. I’ve had to mostly stop buying from UT in Harajuku – even though I like their t-shirts and the price is right – because I’d often run into people wearing the same design (though sometimes in a different color). Most of those brands do limited runs, but so many of the people who buy them frequent Shibuya and Harajuku that it becomes a fashion hazard! :-)
Some girl actually wore the same graduation dress as me one time. It was floor-length & bright green – like you said, hard to miss. And we were both in the front row. I just had to trust that I was rocking it harder, & grin & bear it.
I’ve seen that happen before,
thank god it wasn’t me the one with the same dress, everybody knew where they bought them. lol
I never want it to happen to me…
ps. nice site
goodness, what issues we have!
it doesn’t matter what you wear, it only matters whether you have enough attitude to wear it with panache. and if the other dweeb is wearing the same, well, at last people have the chance to realize just how much better it looks on you.
you worry about someone else turning up in the same outfit? you certainly need to boost your ego.