Raffy, my husband dear, likes to say that from the get-go, one of the things that attracted him to me was my fashion sense, and even though I was glad that he turned up at our dates in starched and pressed long sleeves and trousers instead of the usual T-shirt and jeans, there was never any conscious coupling involved in the way we dressed. So you can imagine our shock when he turned up in my mother’s house during one of our early dates wearing a lime green shirt that was the exact shade of the silk shantung spaghetti-strapped column I had custom-made for the night. He took it (and unbeknownst to him that I did, too) as a sign that this was a match made in heaven.
Here are my takeaways in dressing as a couple:
1. You can be matchy-matchy.
“I do not know if this is just a weird coincidence, but individuals with far-reaching taste in colors and prints, it happens quite often that I walk out of our bathroom and find that we are too matchy-matchy for comfort like that day we both wound up in burgundy (erstwhile known in 2015 as Marsala, the color of the year) for a Xavier school event—he in a pinstriped shirt under a dark gray suit, and I in a botanical-print tee over a charcoal-colored pencil skirt with front slit.”
2. There is a limit to one’s fashion experimentation.
“While Raffy is more adventurous where his shirts are concerned (buying on his own accord a French blue camouflage-print shirt during a trip to Japan, for example), he has refused any suggestions to wear graphic T-shirts with trainers or anything too hipster.”
3. Overtime, your sartorial sense can evolve.
“I, on the other hand, have learned to exchange my beloved heels for mandals and oxfords,and my pretty dresses for more casual normcore gear (sweatshirts, track pants and button-down shirts)."
4. You can have a “look” as a couple while staying true to your style.
“Our 'look' as a couple is more dissonant than harmonious, as his goal to dressing is to look as polished a professional as possible (he manufactures truck bodies), and mine is to be as playful and creative as I can, given time and budget constraints. And yet, if I may say so myself, we look like we belong together. After many years of marriage, we still gravitate toward one another, and I suppose that’s what being a couple is all about.”
*This article was originally published in the February 2015 issue of Preview Magazine.
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