Matching

Last weekend I was helping a friend out at a “Bridal Block Party” he had coordinated. Woof. Smug and overly dressed up from an uber-important interview mere moments before, I was at the height of adrenaline-fueled independent-and-single pride. Yet standing at registration, offering free copies of The Knot to blushing brides-to-be and their resigned future husbands, I couldn’t help noticing how complementary the couples seemed to be. Everything from skin tone to shoe size seemed synchronized, as if they had already undergone the looking-like-the-dog phenomenon, before hitting thirty.

Watching the parade of humanity approach the desk two by two I felt as if I was watching the parade to the ark, except that rather than giraffes and parrots, the subcultures of humanity were processing across the alter to beget and refine their own particular sub-cultured gene pool.

In a lot of ways this is phenomenon seems obvious. We’re going to be attracted to people similar to ourselves, with a sense of shared experience and similar expectations of a future together. Assuming that personal situation and a person’s aesthetic are inarguably linked, it makes sense that people pair off with those who think, act, and (I guess) look like themselves.

There’s also the always annoying mantra that ‘water seeks its level’, and so beauties find beauties, fatties find fatties, and people with weird facial piercings…. well you get the idea.

People are, in essence, seeking their match. Like a pair of socks, you need something opposite but ultimately complementary. Something matching. Or maybe you’re one of those people that wears mismatched socks. In which case your boyfriend might not look as much like you as he would if you were one of those ladies who has slip-covers for her shoes.

In Korea, it is terribly trendy for boys and girls to wear ‘couples outfits’ when you’re involved with someone. You literally wear the same outfit. There are even stores devoted to the practice, offering anything from identical outfits in slightly different sizes to shirts whose pattern extends off of one shirt and onto the next. It’s kooky and extreme, but it’s also kind of cute.

I think that in the quest for a balanced life, we seek partners who compliment us, both in personality and presentation. And in the quest for self-expression, it makes sense that you’re perfect match is going to look like it. And so standing at registration, I admit to experiencing a tinge of couple-envy. Not to complete me or copy me, but to complement me. And maybe wear a couples-outfit every once in a while.