Mother/Daughter Dressing - YouLookFab Forum

Category

Dressing

Welcome! Read about what to wear and how to wear it on the YLF Blog. Join the YLF Forum to ask specific questions or just chat about fashion and personal style. Or check out the curated list of things we love in YLF Finds.

Outfits Ensembles Trends Advice

Mother/Daughter Dressing

deb

Veteran

Natalie mentioned poodle
skirts in her earlier post and it prompted me to respond about matching skirts
my mom and I had when I was little. I could not find a picture of it but I
found this one of my mom and me, on the left, and my aunt (her sister) and my cousin, on the right, in
matching mother/daughter outfits.

Did you have matching outfits
with your mother or daughter?

This post has 1 photo. Photos uploaded by this member are only visible to other logged in members.

If you aren't a member, but would like to participate, please consider signing up. It only takes a minute and we'd love to have you.

Dressing

22 replies

Latest reply was from cloud9

vibgyor004

Awwww....how cute is that!! Thanks for sharing the pic with us! Nope...I never had a matching outfit like that but my husband and son do have some matching Tees and caps!

Anonymous

Oh, how sweet. I don't have any pictures, but I think my Mum and me both had red coats once.

Gaylene

Veteran

Oh, yes, my mother still talks about her foray into mother and daughter outfits.

As I've mentioned before, my mother was a very talented seamstress and made all of her tailored work clothes in the 40s. After my sister and I were born in the early 50s, she decided to try her hand at making us matching sundresses in red gingham and eyelet. My sister was a toddler and I was a pre-schooler when she made the outfits and we all wore the dresses one day for a shopping excursion downtown.

My mom was quite the beauty, but also a bit shy, and she has never forgotten the commotion that she caused on the streetcar, on the sidewalk, and in the shops. She literally stopped traffic as everyone commented on how cute we all looked in our mother and daughter outfits. Needless to say, after that day, we wore the dresses, but never again at the same time.

Aziraphale

Veteran

No, my mother and I never had matching clothes. Back in the 70s, when I was a tot, children wore clothes that were dramatically different from adults' clothes. I've noticed that in the past decade or so, the line has blurred. Now my daughter, who is nine, wears clothes that are just smaller versions of what I might wear on a casual day, like skinny jeans and a loose tee shirt. But even so, it's not intentional. We have no coordinated outfits.

You should check out the Hanna Andersson online catalogue if you're into matchy-matchy -- they have matching outfits for the whole dang family, especially around Christmastime!

Glory

Veteran

Deb this is the sweetest photo! Just love it
I don't have any memory of that although my mother dressed my sister and I alike.
My DDs would divorce me if I dressed the 3 of us alike. Although since having girls, I have embraced more pink in my wardrobe. They are now "over" pink, but I still love it

deb

Veteran

Gaylene, both my mom and aunt sewed and made these outfits.

Aziraphale, I am not into matchy-matchy, even with a spouse. But, thank you for the recommendation.

Glory, my daughter would have divorced me also if I dressed her like me or even had a picture of when she was little dressed like me.

Aziraphale

Veteran

I'm not really into it either, but a lot of people must be, because Hanna Andersson sells loads of the stuff every year!

Actually, there is one matchy-matchy thing I do love: when my children are in matching pajamas. They have a few pairs that are the same. They look a lot alike as it is, with their matching wide blue eyes and brownish-blond hair, but when they happen to put on matching pjs...awwwwwww. So cute.

Speaking of awwwww, you were a super cute toddler.

donnat

Veteran

Deb, that picture is priceless!
I have a brother and sister that are twins. When they were 3 ish, my mom would dress them alike for special occasions (1962 ish). Neil would have on red velvet short pants, with a matching red trim sailor collar white shirt. Gail would have the matching red velvet skirt, with sailor top. Both would be wearing nude color leotards. What a trip down memory lane.

lyn*

(website)

Veteran

Isn't that a cute picture!

I never dressed like my mom or my sister - so nope, here!

Suz

(website)

Veteran

Such a sweet picture!

I wish I could share some but I think they're all slides. And I'm on my phone at the moment. But my mother sewed us a bunch of Simplicity mother/daughter outfits in the late 60s. I loved it! We did attract attention as Gaylene remarks. But we didn't mind a bit. Little Diva that I was, I probably loved it.

Echo

Veteran

I never had a matching outfit with my mom, nor have I ever had matching outfits with my daughter, but Wooden Soldier often has cute things around the holidays where the entire family can match. They have matching family PJs, too, which I would be more likely to go with instead of regular clothing. Cute photo!

FlorenceFearne

That photo is darling.

I have to wonder though, if a lot of this mother/daughter matching had nothing to do with cute factor. In a time when a lot of women sewed their own clothing, I can see it being very likely that you'd end up with only enough fabric left over to make a very small garment, but not an adult sized one. So little daughters were matching their mums just to not let good yardage go to waste.

Regarding present day matchiness though, I have to say No, not a fan at all.

DonnaF

Veteran

This was quite the thing in the 1950s. DH comes from a family of five kids. His mom made matching shirts for the three boys and matching dresses for the two girls and probably herself; I think FIL was spared. All red and white gingham so they were walking picnic tablecloths! I think this made it easier to keep track of the kids when they went out on an excursion and helped strangers match the kids to the family should one or more wander away.

Susie

Veteran

I am the youngest of 3 girls. When I was little, I had an aunt who was a wonderful seamstress and she made us many matching outfits. Since clothes were often handed down, I ended up wearing the same dress for many years!

bananasinjamas

Member

My mom and I had several mother/daughter outfits. I remember us both having the same green printed sundress and one summer, we even had the same red and green striped tennis shoes. My daughter is 3-1/2 and we have had a few similar outfits -- a few years ago I found a dark grey pair of cargo pants for her that essentially matched my J Brand houlihans and we had similar sweaters, and then this year we had swimsuits made from the same fabric from J Crew, and she always has silver flip flops and I do, too. However, we have only worn the matching outfits at the same time once or twice.

anne

Veteran

I never had matching mother daughter (another child of the 70's) But I did have dresses in matching fabric with my sister and identical designs sometimes.

A while ago I succumbed to pressure from my daughter to get a shortsleeved purple sweaterdress so I would be matching with her!

anne

Veteran

Oh and I don't think it is JUST to do with using up the fabric! It was a definite fad.

Suz

(website)

Veteran

It was a fad....but the fad also had to do with using up fabric. Complicated!

I wouldn't do it with my own daughter (she wouldn't have liked it, and neither would I). But we did sometimes wear harmonizing or matching colours. And now she wears my clothes sometimes! Not while I am wearing them, of course.

Anonymous

I think Suz is right about the fabric. No mom-daughter outfits but several matching sister outfits. The most memorable was skirts in bright purple corduroy (probably on super clearance) with several rows of metallic silver rickrack along the bottom, and extra so that the huge hem could be let out several times and more rickrack added to cover any line of the old hem. Awful! I have no photos but the image with Peter Pan blouses is forever etched in memory

goldenpig

(website)

Veteran

My mother sewed matching dresses for me and her and even a small cap and gown for me to wear when my dad graduated from his PhD program--I think I was 2. It was very cute! And now my daughter and I love doing matching outfits together (though I can't sew). I'll be sad when she doesn't want to match me anymore! The kids also like doing triplet matching and I have a set of Hanna Andersson PJs that we wear at Christmas time (though DH hates it!)

Super cute photo, Deb! You were an adorable toddler and I love that you matched your mom and your aunt and cousin matched too!

anne

Veteran

I remember that "cover the let down hems with rick rack" plan!!

cloud9

Veteran

What an adorable picture!

As for me, my mom & I never matched anything. My daughter loves it, but I don't have anything matching, just coordinating. She would comment on when she notices we wearing similar things, like colorful stripy dress. She gets a kick out of it! I do sometimes buy matching Ts for the boys, not often enough so they don't seem to mind.