twin tales

When I was in New York a couple of weeks ago, eating dinner at a sidewalk table outside a little restaurant on East 9th Street, someone yelled "Coliena!" from an idling taxi cab. I yelled back, "I'm Marlien, Coliena's twin sister." Silence followed, and then the taxi surged forward with the traffic and whoever (I found out later it was a famous skateboarder) mistook me for my sister vanished into the night. My dinner companions laughed at the strange encounter, and I explained that this kind of thing happens to me all the time. Sometimes these cases of mistaken identity offer unexpected perks, like the time I was at a surf trade show in San Diego years ago. There I was minding my own business and of course eyeing the super-hot guys on the Quiksilver surf team, when they suddenly saw me and all ran towards me to embrace me. In addition to the long hug, I am pretty sure I happily accepted a few kisses on the cheeks as well, before I told them I was not Coliena, who as it turns out had just photographed them in Maui. As you might imagine, there are less exciting moments too (think hairy man bear-hugging me at LAX and getting progressively angrier as I continue to insist I am not Coliena). Such is the life of an identical twin, and of course, it doesn't help that we also have a good amount of overlap in our fashion tastes and often show up places wearing the exact same, skirt, top, jeans etc. which we both have purchased unbeknownst to one another. One interesting aspect of this duplicative shopping is that when we both get an item, it tends to be really good. By that measure this navy J.Crew jacket and this printed fur Topshop sweatshirt are likely keepers.