Matchy Matchy

Some families make torture an annual tradition. And look at what lovely photos result!

"So when I was a kid, every year we had to do these annual photo thingies for my mother. She would wake us up too early in the morning and made us into perfect little angels. I won't ever understand why she used to dress us up in the same dress in different sizes, as if we triplets or something...

Well I had my full if it that day, thank you very much...Nor did I want to wear the shinny new mary janes she bought for me, because, well, it hurt my feet..." (via)

Do you think this photo was framed and on the wall of their home? Do you think there was an entire wall, filled with year after year of these? Dresses matching each year in a visual cacophony of light and color, frowns and shiny shoes. It sounds almost wonderful and a part of me envies Mom.

This woman hopes she and her sister were not alone.

"I assume we're not the only sisters forced to wear awful matching dresses..." (via)

Oh no, not at all. For at least today, she can share the comfort of strangers also forced into fashion disasters.

I don't think the next family is Mennonite, but it is hard to tell.

"Our mom dressed us girls in matching outfits only once, thank god! There she is, peeking out the window in the background...looking mighty pleased with herself." (via)

And why shouldn't she be? To get your girls to wear not just the dresses, but the head scarves too? That's a family joke of epic proportions, fodder for years of laughter to come. Mom should be proud!

This Mom made these dresses. And check out the matching shoes! Doesn't baby girl look happy?? (via)

And there is more to this photo than is shown here. In later comments, baby girl says "...shot me in the foot with a bb gun when I was wearing those shoes. They had a permanent dark colored indentation in the toe area."

What was going on at their family parties? Of course, I too knew a bb gun victim--"Gabe"--who, as far as I know, still has the bb that went up his nose. Ouch!

"My grandmother made matching mother-daughter dresses for my mother and I. Here we are standing outside the entrance to my mother's dance studio. I think this is a *very* early 1970s sort of outfit and fabric." (via)

Does this then count as my parent's parent made me wear this? All in all, I'd say Mom looks quite spiffy in her cute dress and red shoes. Kind of a hot ticket, outside her dance studio.

In fact, a few of today's entries seem to share an appreciation for Mom.

"Mama and Me. Popular then, the matching dresses. Still and all, Mama was a classy lady." (via)

"Dad, me, and Mom.

Yes, my mom sewed us matching shirts! It was about 1974." (via)

I like that the shirts look like bandanna material. And that shiny materials is also so figure flattering!

I suspect that the bows in her hair were made out of that old-school ribbon I don't think exists anymore. It was thick, and puffy, and tended to fray when tied around your ponytails all day. Kind of like cotton balls stretched into twisted ribbon. I loved when I got packages tied with it because it meant hair adornment galore!

Have any matching outfits of your own? Send them along!