Sixty-eight pairs of identical twins dressed in pairs of matching catwalk finery – two dazzling Lurex gowns with shark-bite cut outs, two tailored silk ensembles embroidered with cherry blossoms, two pinstripe suits with ladylike handbags – was a mic-drop moment of visual drama that brought the house down at the Gucci show at Milan fashion week.
To cast the show, Gucci had sent a secret scouting party to Twins Day, a twins convention in Twinsburg, Ohio. The audience, divided between two separate rooms, did not know they were watching twins until the final moments, when a screen dividing the rooms was lifted and each model joined hands with a sibling who had been walking in tandem with them throughout the show.
To look at identical twins can feel like viewing a natural wonder of the world. Twinning is “so familiar – but so powerful”, said the show’s creative director, Alessandro Michele, after the show. Twins, he said, remind us of “the connective tissue” in families and in society.
