15 seconds, 15 minutes, or 15 months
Twins. They run in our family. My parents didn't have twins, but you wouldn't know that if you came across pictures of my sisters when they young. Debbie and Pam are fifteen months apart, but that was hard to tell when they were under the ages of 5 and 6. Mom holds out that it was "just easier to dress them alike". Let's face it, they were darn cute!
And now a broad selection of Twins as costume inspiration.
Tweedledum and Tweedledee
Best known from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice Found There. Carroll, having introduced two fat little men named Tweedledum and Tweedledee, quotes the nursery rhyme, which the two brothers then go on to enact.
- Tweedledum and Tweedledee
- Agreed to have a battle;
- For Tweedledum said Tweedledee
- Had spoiled his nice new rattle.
- Just then flew down a monstrous crow,
- As black as a tar-barrel;
- Which frightened both the heroes so,
- They quite forgot their quarrel.
The two appeared in the 1951 Disney classic version of Alice in Wonderland, only to be reinvented by the master of the macabre, Tim Burton, in 2010.
Chang and Eng Bunker
Appearing as part of P.T. Barnum's circus in the mid 19th century, Chang and Eng Bunker were the most famous pair of conjoined twins. Born in Siam, they billed in Barnum's Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan & Hippodrome as "The Siamese Twins," a term which has come to be synonymous with the condition.
Gilbert & George
Born Gilbert Proesch (b.1943) and George Passmore (b.1942), the pair submerged their individual personalities into the Siamese-twin-like persona of Gilbert and George shortly after meeting at St Martin’s School ofArt in London in 1967.
“On leaving college and being without a penny,” George later recalled, “we were just there. Just two physical presences, Gilbert and George.” So it was, Gilbert added, that “We put on metallic make-up and became sculptures. Two bronze sculptures.”
The Kray Brothers
Twin brothers Ronnie and Reggie Kray were English gangsters who were foremost perpetrators of organised crime in London's East End during the 1950s and '60s.
"They were the best years of our lives. They called them the swinging sixties. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones were rulers of pop music, Carnaby Street ruled the fashion world... and me and my brother ruled London. We were f---ing untouchable."
- Ronnie Kray
As Morrissey croons, they were "The Last of the Famous International Playboys".
Mythological Twins
Mythology has given us many twins, including twin brothers Romulus and Remus, Castor and Pollux (the Gemini Twins) as well as twin brother and sister Apollo and Artemis, the children of Zeus and Leto.
Artemis is the lady of the wild things; she is the huntsman of the gods; she is the protector of the young. Like Apollo she hunts with silver arrows. She is a virgin goddess, the goddess of chastity and presides over childbirth. Artemis is associated with the moon.
The cypress is her tree. All wild animals are scared to her, especially the deer.
Apollo is the god of music, playing a golden lyre; the Archer, far shooting with a silver bow; the god of healing who taught man medicine; the god of light; and the god of truth, who can not speak a lie.
One of Apollo's more important daily tasks is to harness his chariot with four horses an drive the Sun across the sky.
His tree was the laurel. The crow his bird. The dolphin his animal.
And finally, let's not forget these little devils....
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| Mom's brothers Kenny and Kevin, or is that Kevin and Kenny? |
