Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany met in 2001 on the set of the film A Beautiful Mind. They married and had their first child in 2003, and 20 years later they are still very much together, as evidenced by their recent appearance in Paris on October 1, 2023.
Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany dress a lot like twins, but they’re not the only couple who dress alike.
In fact, celebrity couples dressing alike is a much more common occurrence than we think.
Connelly and Bettany, both 52, were spotted together in Paris on October 1, 2023, wearing almost identical clothes. Connelly wore a navy blue bomber jacket with a black shearling collar and an all-black suit. Bettany wore a black leather bomber jacket with a beige shearling collar, army green pants and a white T-shirt. Both wore sunglasses, adding to their effortlessly cool look.
While there’s little chance that their complementary outfits will be completely casual, there are various reasons why so many couples dress the same so often.
One couple that comes to mind when thinking of twin outfits is Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker, who dress so alike that it looks more like a team effort. Their similar styles and consistent PDA scream to the rest of the world that they are definitely a couple, lest anyone forget it.
Kanye West and his wife Bianca Censori also tend to match, as do Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Fox. While these couples may not wear the same clothes like Connelly and Bettany, they do wear clothes with similar color palettes and styles to highlight how close they really are.
Of course, some couples dress like twins to make a statement—think Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears at the 2001 American Music Awards in head-to-toe denim outfits.
Some couples approach twinning in a more subtle and natural way, coordinating outfits without even meaning to. The more time a couple spends together, the more their mannerisms, facial expressions, and even clothing can become similar as they begin to resonate with each other.
Twinning can be explained as a social phenomenon, since we subconsciously reflect the interests of those closest to us.
In couples, twins usually begin around 6 months into the relationship.
According to an article published by Discovery.com in 2019, entire studies have been conducted around the question of why people tend to behave the same way as others in certain social situations. Scientists have stopped the act of unconsciously imitating the “chameleon effect” by taking a cue from a small, color-changing lizard that blends in with its surroundings.
The mechanism that explains people’s susceptibility to the chameleon effect is what researchers call “perception-behavior coupling,” which occurs when two people are in close social proximity. This occurs when one person imitates another person’s behavior, actions, or presentation simply by witnessing each other do something. The link between perception and behavior involves small actions such as gestures, speech patterns, and even moods.
In the case of couples who dress alike, this could be as simple as one partner noticing what the other is wearing and, on a subconscious level, wanting to reflect them—to show how close and connected they are to each other.
So the next time you and your loved one dress up, pay attention to what clothes you decide to wear. Wearing matching clothes that complement each other signals that you are in tune with each other and want to look your best together.
As Connelly and Bettany’s twinning relationship shows, long-term couples always try to stay in touch with each other. However, creating a look that resembles Spears and Timberlake’s all-denim statement takes the twinning concept too far.
At the end of the day, you and your partner are not one cohesive person, but separate individuals who work well together, as evidenced by your coordinated outfits.
Alexandra Blogger is a news and entertainment writer for YourTango. She covers celebrity gossip, pop culture analysis, and everything related to the entertainment industry.