Facebook/Matchmi
For some, the idea of moms and their daughters wearing matching clothes sounds a little over the top; for others it seems downright adorable. The latter is the target consumer base for Matchmi, a new clothing company launched this month that sells matching dresses for mothers and daughters. It s the brainchild of creative director Lacie Thorne, 32, a former New York City designer behind celebrity brands such as Jennifer Lopez Apparel at Kohl s and Kmart's Nicki Minaj Collection and Adam Levine Collection .
I got the idea for Matchmi back in December after stumbling across a Facebook page for a company that sold mother-daughter outfits I was surprised that it had almost 100,000 likes, Thorne, a married mother of one, tells Yahoo Shine. I realized there was a real market for mothers and daughters who got a kick out of dressing alike. Thorne began immediately sketching her own designs and drafting a business plan. Most people were supportive but some were skeptical, she admits. I got comments like, Why would a mother want to dress like her daughter? That s a constant uphill battle for us.
However, Thorne says that unlike many brands that sell hokey and unstylish "mommy and me" outfits, her designs are sleek and cater to women with children aged 18 months to 4 years old an age when little girls are looking to emulate their mothers, she says. But for pairs who don t want to completely match from head-to-toe, Matchmi also sells dresses with coordinating details such as patterns. Women's clothing ranges from $75 to $90 and children's clothing ranges from $50 to $58.
In October, Thorne's husband received a job transfer to Hong Kong and the couple, along with their then-2-month-old son moved overseas. Next month, Matchmi will make its debut at Hong Kong Fashion Week. Pieces will then start being sold via Matchmi's Facebook page and in regional clothing boutiques in the Southeast United States in January.
Despite the fact that the mini-me trend has been dubbed "creepy" by some, there's no shortage of companies that cater to stylish mother-daughter sets. Clothing company ETSI sells dresses and tracksuits for moms and their little girls, whileMatcheez offers a range of outfits to entire families seeking coordinating clothing. And in 2012, H&M launched a limited-edition Fashion Friendly collection featuring adult clothing (skinny jeans, shift dresses), matching shoes, and accessories along with identical versions for children. Even Victoria Beckham and Katie Holmes have been spotted in coordinating outfits with daughters Harper Beckham and Suri Cruise. And the hashtag #Webetwinning is currently trending on Instagram whereby mothers are uploading photos of themselves with their pint-sized doppelgangers.
What s the appeal for mothers and daughters to become carbon copies of each other? Researchers at Temple University in Philadelphia call it the "consumer doppelganger" phenomenon and point to moms as the driving force, saying that mothers tend to be heavily influenced by the makeup and clothing their daughters purchase. In 2011, the team at Temple interviewed 343 pairs of mother-daughter pairs who averaged 44 and 16 years old They found that moms who describe themselves as young at heart, are fashion conscious, and who view their daughters as stylish are more likely to dress in similar outfits or similar styles to their offspring.
In the future, Matchmi hopes to expand into father-son, sibling, and grandparent-grandchildren collections and matching styles for the entire family. Now, that we'd like to see!
