The Rise and Rise of Couple Style
Good style is twice as nice when done with a fashionable partner in crime
Whether loved up or otherwise, there’s no denying that couple power dressing is back. From fan favourites Rihanna and A$AP Rocky to up-and-coming content creators, the fashion game is getting stronger when multiplied by two.
Originally, I wrote about fashionable celebrity couplings in 2021. But with the conscious, unconscious, unseemly and we all knew it was bound to happen celerity uncouplings that have happened as of late, I thought this topic was worth a revisit. Is couple dressing destined for relationship doom? Or is it just me, a fashion girlie, reading too much into it? I’ll let you decide…
It’s Kylie Jenner switching up her swag when she started dating Timothée Chalamet, rocking leather trenches and sunglasses so dark you’d think they were perpetually dodging paparazzi. But we know the Kardashian Klan loves some carefully orchestrated PDA, so there’s that. It’s Emma Corrin and Rami Malek locking down the “we’re so above it all” vibe with their white tees, greige caps, and artfully oversized trousers — the unofficial cool uniform. It’s Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny and their Gucci-campaign-turned-soft-launch, clearly inspired by early-2000s David and Victoria Beckham but with a "we're in on the joke" twist. And let’s not forget that we’re now in the dawn of post Zoë Kravitz-Channing Tatum Autumn now the pair have called off their engagement.
Fans have become obsessed with celebrities’ commitment to carefully curated outfit coordination, scouring every post for clues, desperate for anything that lets them have a peek into the carefully guarded love lives of the rich and famous. Every matching outfit, every carefully styled colour palette, is a breadcrumb in a high-stakes guessing game where the stakes are somehow higher because… well, we just need to know.
Spend enough time with someone, and eventually, my guesses are you’re raiding their wardrobe, or at the very least, curating a joint aesthetic or look that subtly says “we’re together”. Dress like your bestie, but you get to go home with them at the end of the night too. Win win for you. Forget Facebook relationship statuses or ambiguous #softlaunch Instagram posts; today, if you’re dressing alike, is there anything more couple-worthy than that?
The evolution of love in the fashion limelight
Ah, the "matchy-matchy" era of the late ‘90s and early 2000s — a time when love was spelt out in sequins, velour, and a suspicious amount of denim. The good old days. Britney and Justin, of course, practically immortalized it with their infamous denim-on-denim ensemble at the AMAs. Back then, couples dressed like clones not just out of admiration for one another, but to show off their loved-up status in a way that only a Canadian tuxedo could. Nowadays? The coordinated look is less about romance and more about PR polish, reminding us that nothing says “we’re serious” quite like a unified wardrobe.
Remember that 2006 Daily Express headline, “Brad: The Man Who Likes to Look Like His Girlfriend”? Thank social media for ensuring it will haunt him forever. Brad may have pioneered the art of mirroring his partner’s look at the height of peak paparazzi culture, but the early 2000s made it a full-blown trend. It was the heyday of Posh and Becks in coordinated Gucci leather, and Bennifer’s velour-and-trucker-caps vibe. This wasn’t just couple style; it was synchronized branding, a relationship flex that made magazine covers and fueled endless gossip columns.
Fast forward a few decades from the OG Bennifer days, who have since got back together, got married (on a plantation no less, I am sure the ghosts of times past doomed their relationship to fail), got divorced, and the game has only evolved. Beyoncé and Jay-Z took the concept of “his-and-hers” outfits and turned it into a billion-dollar empire. From two world tours together to a joint album and Tiffany’s campaign, they’ve redefined the power couple aesthetic with polished coordination.
The message is clear: couple branding is about crafting an empire that can stand the test of time. But not everyone gets it right. But the formula was and remains simple to this day: a pair of A-listers, some matching outfits, and a boatload of press attention. And there you have it, the secret sauce to ascend new fashionable heights.
Celebrity couple dressing and aesthetic range
Rihanna and A$AP Rocky emphasise style synergy over sameness. They’re intentional yet individual. Rihanna once likened their style to “iron sharpening iron,” which really does capture their relationship in fashion terms: they complement each other’s looks with a certain je nais se quois. From matching leathers at Giorgio Baldi to casually turning Milan Fashion Week into their own Gucci runway, they have mastered synchronised style. Think: custom Loewe, archival Comme des Garçons, Rick Owens, Schiaparelli, Bottega Veneta — their wardrobe has me drooling. Their fits only get better as time goes on, and I’m pretty sure Hollywood is taking notes.
Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum, we have the Biebers, who approach couple style with, shall we say, a bit more of an... interpretive flair? Never seeming to dress for the same occasion, Hailey serves in sleek red cocktail dresses to grab doughnuts at Krispy Kreme, while Justin is out here in yellow Crocs and sweatpants like he's on a grocery run. It’s giving polar opposites but you do you boo.
Then there’s Lily-Rose Depp and 070 Shake who have mastered that painfully cool vibe. Depp takes after her mother and looks like a ‘90s actress who just rolled out of bed and woke up like this, while 070 Shake could have come straight from high school band practice. Somehow, it works like a charm. And I’m not mad at it. They keep it low-key, never trying too hard.
And while they’re at the understated end, we have Tom Holland and Zendaya, who, thanks to press tours, have been known to pull out the matching looks on the regular. Sure, it’s one thing to coordinate outfits while promoting a multi-million dollar Marvel flick, but personal dressing is a whole different game. Case in point: at Tom’s non-alcoholic beer line launch, Zendaya stole the show in a custom Louis Vuitton leather dress, gold belt, and killer black pumps. Tom must’ve been proud, even if everyone was mostly talking about her outfit. Love this for them.
Sartorial synchornisation and fashion as performance
In South Korea, couples have been rocking the matchy-matchy look long before it was cool, making it a full-fledged art form with its own name: "커플룩" or “couple look.” Imagine: you and your partner, decked out in coordinating outfits, a sweet little sartorial signal of “yes, we’re very much an item.” It’s endearingly pure, a fashion statement that says we may be two but we come as one.
According to some, dressing alike is a visual display of emotional solidarity — whether the couples in question are in the honeymoon phase or maybe hitting a rough patch and need the world to see they’re still ‘solid’. It’s the universal language of relationship status: matching outfits for the highs and even more coordinated outfits for the lows.
Of course, they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and if you scroll through big socials, you’ll find endless couples who dress alike. Accounts like Young Emperors serve up high-fashion looks that seem designed to make the rest of us feel like we’re slacking in the relationship department. And my personal favourites, Skylar Marshai and her beau, know a thing or two about harmonious couple dressing. Good style is twice as nice when done with a partner in crime.
Couples, celebrity and otherwise, are nailing duo dressing and it’s become a performance art. Whether intentional or just accidentally coordinated, dressing like your partner is a trend that’s clearly here to stay. Think Megan Fox and MGK’s rock ‘n’ roll glam, Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker’s punk vibes, or Rihanna and A$AP Rocky turning high fashion into a team sport. Individually, these celebs had style on lock; together, they’ve entered the holy matrimony of couple branding, creating media buzz and stylistic influence.
These matching looks feel particularly poignant in the wake of break-up summer, which, let’s be real, has bled right into autumn, as celebrity splits hit us left and right. For those still going strong, it seems like matching aesthetics are a kind of counter-spell against the break-up curse. Personal styles evolve when you’re practically sharing closets, especially when both halves bring a similar yer individual aesthetic to the table.
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It is interesting to see how over time some couples (not all) morph into one another... its the same but different? There is a certain element of branding and strategic marketing set by the fashion overlords that goes into it, and where our fave celebs are concerned, it just feels like an extended PR exercise!
Am I the only one who's a bit sceptical when both start to wear Uggs and Christmas Pj's...because they're one item instead of two individual entities who supposedly love and cherish each other? Feeling myself that's a manufactured socially constructed and by now widely accepted marketing trap to sell guilty pleasures with literally twice the profit margins, a few months later with the folly detected one wonders how educated people could fall into this particularly fashionable trap as set by marketing geniuses, the fashion media, bloggers and pressure to conform alike, educated maybe but seriously not so wise. Thanks for your deep dive into this phenomenon, right on time 🤓📚🔖💯