How 2 Friends Shared 1 Suitcase For A Whole Vacation

A few years back, when Emily Holland and I first met while working at Glamour, sparks did not fly. I believe she told her boss she thought I was “weird” — and I thought she was weirder. But one night, she invited me to Shred For Your Life, and six months later, we were on our way to Tulum as best friends.

Over the course of those six months, Emily and I realized how many wardrobe doubles we had. We both had the exact same baby-sized Chanel purse, the same jeans, and we both have the same go-to shade of red nail polish. Because we’re silly dorks, we embraced it and started buying matching clothes to play it up. In our bags to Tulum were matching white Birkenstocks, identical Levi’s shorts, and matching Budweiser bikinis. One year for Halloween, we dressed up as the dancing emoji kitty cat girls. Since then, we’ve been on a couple of trips together. We’re buddies with a capital B, and share everything — especially clothes — when we’re traveling.

For our trip this year, we spent a week in the Cyclades and decided to pack just one Tumi Alpha 2 bag for the both of us. Despite having so much outfit overlap, we have very different personal style. Emily tends towards the understated, casual, '70s vintage-inspired end of the spectrum while I love sparkle and pattern. She’s folk and I’m disco. We were curious to see how we’d each wear the same pieces, which would be the favorites, and whether or not it’s possible to spend a week together with just one carry-on between the two of us.