See them whizzing across the city on their fast bikes: his a men’s model, hers a woman’s. Both wrapped in a puffer jacket and with matching trainers. His hat is the same colour as her bag. The dreary ‘ANWB couple’ in trendy jackets.
Rihanna’s puffer jacket
The ‘ANWB couple’ – named after the Dutch travellers’ association – has been immortalized by the ‘Okko and Eus’ characters from the comedy show Koefnoen. But they didn’t invent the ‘couple look’ and it’s not even typically Dutch. Although clothing trends often originate in pop culture – Rihanna appears in a puffer jacket and suddenly everyone is wearing one – couples coordinating their outfits began in South Korea.
Just married
It was there that 커플룩 (‘Couple Look’ spelled with Korean characters) appeared in the 1990s. The phenomenon was a reaction against the traditional South Korean costume that couples wore on their honeymoon. Newlyweds decided to coordinate their outfits instead, to publicly declare their status as a married couple. The Facebook relationship status avant-la-lettre. The couple look spread to China and Japan and became incredibly popular among young people.
Together One
A similar effect can also happen unintentionally. Partners, for instance who unconsciously begin to like the same things and gradually create wardrobes that look increasingly similar. The couple look in this case expresses a much stronger sense of affinity, while also displaying a certain mutual dependence, in which the boundaries of the individual are blurred.
Everyone different
Whether it’s a deliberate decision or an unconscious change, matching outfits can contribute to the human need to belong. They can be a way of discovering one another, of exploring who we are when we’re with someone. So long as the couple look isn’t used to smother a person’s own style and identity: because what is the relationship built on if we don’t feel secure enough to be ourselves?
More
Passion – Love play
The appearance of sex toys tells us a lot about how people felt about lust and gratification at a particular time. About the taboos that might still attach to them. And about the future of sex and the ideals of designers.
Passion – The kiss
Your first kiss. You never forget it. No matter how sweet, sloppy or bad it was. After that, there’s no stopping you: on average you’ll spend 20,000 minutes of your life kissing.
Passion – Perfectible body
Not happy with your body? Then do something about it. That seems to be the credo of our age, with its obsession with perfect bodies. But is the body really so perfectible?
Passion – The body
The contents of Bouquet romantic novels might still leave something to the imagination, but not so their covers: this is the image of the ‘ideal man’. What does it say about our perceptions?
Passion – Romantic fiction
Seven Nights with the Sheikh, A Kiss in the Moonlight, An Heir for the King: the titles of romantic fiction in the world-famous Bouquet series have always appealed to the imagination. Guilty pleasures full of desire, temptation and happy endings are still extremely popular.
Falling in Love – Making it happen
Butterflies in your stomach, unable to eat a thing, constantly daydreaming and checking your phone every five minutes to see if you’ve received a new message: falling in love is magical.
Bonding – Parenthood
For centuries being a mum or dad was not a choice at all, simply how things were ‘supposed to be’. The way parenthood itself is viewed has also changed over the years.
Bonding – Marriage
Only three things are truly important in a marriage: you, your beloved and your love for each other. All the same, there are a lot more factors at play in the background.
Bonding – Family of choice
In addition to their biological family, many people have one they’ve chosen for themselves: people you’re not related to, people who understand, help and love you.
Love, designed
We’ve all grown up with stories and clichés that have unconsciously influenced our image of love. Love, designed explores these stereotypes and shows how design guides the way we both seek and ‘consume’ love.
