Putting TWO Together : Half the Fun of Twins, Say Some, Is Doubling Up or Complementing

Gina Decarion doesn’t have to think twice about whether to dress her twin boys alike.

Her 2-year-old sons, Hayden and Oliver, always wear identical outfits.

“It’s just so cute,” says Decarion, a Newport Beach resident. “If one gets dirty, I change them both so they’re always alike.”

She’s constantly browsing through children’s boutiques for two of everything.

“Everyone says the twins are always dressed the cutest, but it’s very, very hard,” Decarion says. “Finding two things alike in the same sizes is difficult.”

Although twins occur naturally in about one in 100 pregnancies, assisted reproductive technology and fertility medications have artificially increased the number of multiple births. And parents of twins, triplets or--heaven help them--multiple offspring of even greater numbers face multiple problems dressing their children.

First, they must contend with the psychological issue of whether to dress the children alike--something that’s not a concern for other parents. Some psychologists frown on identical outfits for twins.

“In general principal, I’m against dressing twins alike. It creates confusion. People can’t distinguish between them,” says Nancy Segal, a professor of psychology at Cal State Fullerton who has conducted research on twins and is a twin.

“For twins to dress alike and enjoy their twinship on occasion is fine, but if they do so on a steady basis, it prevents them from developing a sense of self,” Segal says. “Don’t make them into little clones.”

Laura Baker, associate professor of psychology at USC, says she wouldn’t prevent twins from dressing alike, but she would try to encourage their individuality.

“Twins should be treated as individuals, not just as ‘the girls’ or ‘the boys.’ Dressing them alike forces them to be treated as a unit,” she says.

“As long as parents are emphasizing the differences between the twins, it’s probably OK to dress them alike sometimes. But I’d recommend not dressing them alike all the time. It’s important to encourage separate identities,” she says.

Decarion sees no harm in dressing her young boys alike.

“I’ve had people stop and tell me [dressing them alike] doesn’t give them individuality, but that’s not true,” she says.

The boys are simply too young to care what they wear, she says.

“The second they tell me they don’t want to be dressed alike, that’s fine with me.”

Suzanne Takabayashi, an Irvine mother of 18-month-old Shane and Ryan, also enjoys dressing her sons in matching outfits, even though it can be difficult to tell them apart.

“Twins attract attention anyway. It’s fun to dress them alike,” she says. “When they get older and develop their individuality, we’ll let them choose their own stuff.”

Those who want to dress their twins alike have to work doubly hard to find matching children’s clothes. Most specialty stores don’t carry more than one outfit per size.

Decarion shops a lot to find matching boys’ clothes that aren’t run-of-the-mill.

“I have a lecture I give every store owner. I tell them their stuff is too common,” she says.

She has found a few children’s boutiques in Orange County that carry a good selection of matching outfits. At Lucy Max in Laguna Beach, there’s a large inventory of identical or coordinating outfits in the same size because the clothes are manufactured on the premises.

“People now are more into dressing their twins in coordinating clothes in the same fabrics but different styles rather than identical clothes,” says Bernadette Kelly-Whelan, owner of Lucy Max. “For instance, we have a yellow floral dress with a green collar that also comes in green with a yellow collar that would be perfect for twin girls.”

Kelly-Whelan understands the twin dilemma because she grew up with twin sisters.

“They dressed alike until they were 6 or 7, and they decided they didn’t want to anymore,” she says.

Jacadi in South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, is another source of clothing for twins; it carries coordinating themed collections.

“Everything’s in a group,” says Debbie MacDonald, manager of Jacadi. This fall there’s a dog print called Youpi available in overalls, dresses, skirts and other styles for boys and girls from infants to Size 12. Not only can parents put a boy and girl twin in coordinating outfits, they can dress another child in the family in a different style outfit in the same print.

“That way, nobody feels left out,” MacDonald says. There are unisex overalls with the doggy print for a boy and girl twin ($80), and a matching dress for girls with a corduroy collar and drop waist ($73).

When buying clothes, Segal suggests parents listen closely to what their twins want.

“If twins are identical, they often want the same clothes because they look good in the same thing,” Segal says. It’s literally in the genes.

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Multiple Facts About Twins (None of Them Identical)

* Most multiple pregnancies consist of twins.

* Twins occur naturally in about one in 100 pregnancies (triplets, one in 8,000; quadruplets, one in 500,000.)

* The likelihood of becoming pregnant with more than one baby increases until about age 40, when there is a decline.

* Assisted reproductive technology such as in-vitro fertilization and the development of fertility medications have increased the number of multiple births.

* Before ultrasound, twins weren’t discovered until delivery.

* The occurrence of fraternal twins--formed from two eggs--is influenced by race, age, family history, past pregnancies and fertility medications. The occurrence of identical twins--formed when a single fertilized egg splits--is not subject to these same factors and is the subject of much study and speculation.

* Fraternal twins are twice as common as identical twins, which occur in about one in 250 pregnancies.

* About half of all women who have twins have Cesarean births.

* While most single babies are born at 40 weeks of gestation, twins are born at an average of 37 weeks.

Source: “Mayo Clinic Complete Book of Pregnancy & Baby’s First Year” (William Morrow, 1994)