In the post “Seeing Double”, from August 2024, my theme was finding photos from the Swedish Roots website that looked like my relatives or people I know. But at the same time, being fascinated by clothing styles from those days, I started a file called “Dressed Alike”, thinking it would make good blog material.

To begin with, dressing kids alike has always been a “thing”. Here are some “midcentury modern” photos you might recognize if you’re related to me. (There’s a hint in “Mad About Plaid”.)

In “Mad About Plaid”, I theorized that ready-made clothing must not have been widely available, because out of the hundreds (yea, thousands) of vintage photos from all over Sweden I didn’t see any two people wearing the exact same thing, unless it was in the same photo, like you see above.

I still haven’t figured out if people had matching outfits made especially for these family portraits, or whether you really could go and buy identical outfits in multiple sizes for all your kids.

The first thing that comes to my mind here is that the moms bought yards and yards of the same fabric and were busy sewing for days. The info on Swedish Roots says that the people on the left were the Anders Petter Johanssons, and it was estimated that the photo was a reproduction of one taken around 1871. The family on the right was unknown. I can’t figure out what the baby is holding, but it kind of looks like a potted plant.

In this one, we see another no-nonsense mom who apparently got enough fabric to make herself a dress to match the kids. I like the fabric because it looks textured, almost like it could be a wide seersucker. Based on what we learned in “Mad About Plaid”, it’s hard to say for sure if the children are boys or girls, but judging from the hairstyles, I’m going to guess boys this time. You can read this article for more information on that.

This photo was labeled “Twins John and Esther Broling”. I’m thinking John is the one on the left. Their outfits are pretty similar, except for the sleeves, where it looks like Esther might have a bit more of a ruffle on hers.

The caption on this was “Hulda and Bjork”. Obviously not twins, but they have on nearly identical outfits.

“Elis and Walter”, again not twins but dressed alike.

This family went all out and did not only matching dresses, but matching hats. Take a look at their shoes, and if you want to see more like these, click on “These Boots…“.

These two groups of siblings were unnamed on Swedish Roots.com, but they are all meticulously dressed. Notice the white lace or ruffled collars, which seem to have been in style for kids, at least for professional portraits. I can’t really see them running around outside playing in them, though.

Another example of large collars. The one on the right looks like someone just told him to “stand up straight!”

The photo on the left was captioned “Anna and Astrid Karlsson.” There were no names for the ones on the right. In these, you can see that besides the outfits, they went for identical hairstyles as well.

The Oskar Petersson family opted for a sailor motif, with a girls’ and a boys’ version plus a sailor inspired collar for the mom. I think it would be cool if her dress had been navy blue instead of black, which it might have been. The lack of color photography leaves us to guess about a lot of this.

Sailor outfits were popular in those days. As Sherlock Holmes would say, “I’m writing a little monograph…” (read: blog post) about this style eventually, so you may see these photos again one day. Notice that the little girl’s shoes are almost the same as what Mildred had on in the Johnson family picture in “These Boots…”.

According to Swedish Roots, the boys on the right are Lars-Erik and Sven-Olaf, in 1914. On the left, also in sailor outfits, are Carl-Gustaf and Gunnar.

However, lest I use too many of my sailor suit pictures prematurely, we will turn our attention back to similar hairstyles.

Two sets of sisters with identical dresses and similar hairstyles.

Even adult women had their pictures taken with matching outfits and hairstyles.

I think it’s interesting how only two of these women are matching. The photo was on the Swedish Roots website, but it’s labeled as having been taken in Middletown, Connecticut.

I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: I can’t imagine lacing up boots like that on a little kid. Or on myself, for that matter!

Unknown woman and two children. What I like about this one is the trim on the mom’s dress, but you can’t ignore the kid’s striped socks. Apparently, he couldn’t either, judging from his disgruntled expression.

In the matter of identical hairstyles and outfits, my own ancestors were not to be outdone. On the left you see my mom’s cousins, Inez and Lester, who, according to family tradition had just tried to cut their own hair, and my grandma Edla and her sister Alma as young teens in a rare glimpse of them with their hair down.

My great grandparents Nels and Charlotte Nelson with Hildur and Oscar, who look like they could be dressed alike, and Edla and Alma with matching hats, bows, and outfits.

I’m not sure who these kids were, but they were in my great grandmother Petronella’s carte de visite album, which you can see in “Faces from the Old Country”.

Even my dad and my uncle Paul (next to Edla and Emil respectively) were not exempt from being dressed alike for this 1941 family portrait. Since Edla Caroline, Daniel, and Lois were practically adults, they apparently got to pick their own outfits.

At one point, in July of 2017, Foster complained that I tried to say we had on the same kind of socks, but that’s the closest I’ve been to being dressed like anyone else in a photo recently. Still, I love to peruse through vintage photos to find people who were. Remember: I spend hours on this stuff so you don’t have to!