“Are you Laufey?”
A fan approached the desk at a restaurant within the East Village, hoping for an image with Laufey (pronounced LAY-vay), the musician beloved amongst Gen Z listeners for her nostalgic mixture of pop and jazz.
The girl eating there had the singer’s center half, her mannerisms and her retro-femme type of gown. She was not Laufey, however her an identical twin, Junia.
The fan recovered shortly: “Do you steal all of her footwear?”
This resemblance turns out to be useful, Junia (pronounced YOO-nia) defined final month over eggs and kimchi on a thick slice of sourdough. She will check digital camera angles whereas her sister is hydrating earlier than a efficiency, or sub in for fittings on a second’s discover. They usually do swipe one another’s footwear.
“She simply obtained new Chanel ballet flats — in fact I used to be going to steal them,” Junia informed the fan.
However Junia, 25, whose full title is Junia Lin Jonsdottir, is greater than her well-known sister’s physique double. She works as Laufey’s inventive director, shaping the romantic visible type the singer’s followers name “Laufeycore.” She has almost two million TikTok followers of her personal who devour her trend suggestions and her occasional excursions of Iceland, the place the sisters grew up.
She can be a teen making an attempt to cement her personal inventive id whereas her twin is within the midst of knowledgeable breakthrough. Thus far this yr, Laufey has gained her first Grammy, attended her first Met Gala and offered out Radio Metropolis twice.
Twins usually get questions on envy and comparability, however even by these requirements, Junia has been fielding a whole lot of them currently. “I don’t really feel jealous anymore,” she stated. “I feel I did final yr, after I had simply graduated school, and I felt extra misplaced. Like, I used to be job hopping, and he or she was constructing her profession. However a lot has modified in only one yr that I not have these emotions.”
Junia, who lives in London, joined her sister’s group full time in January and works to construct the aesthetic facet of Laufey’s musical empire. She plans album covers, music movies and efficiency seems, usually over video calls with Laufey, who lives in Los Angeles, and the remainder of her group.
It reminds Junia of the way in which the 2 improvised as youngsters. “Like, we performed dolls collectively, and generally it appears like we’re nonetheless doing that,” she stated.
Ballet Flats in Iceland
The sisters grew up in each Washington, D.C., and Iceland, their father’s house nation, in a family made musical by their mom, a classical violinist who’s Chinese language. Junia stated she had all the time felt overseas in Reykjavik, generally insisting on strolling to highschool in skirts and ballet flats regardless that everybody else was carrying rain boots.
At 7, Junia determined she needed to choose up the violin due to a picture on the duvet of a workbook their mom introduced house. “There was a lady holding a violin, carrying white frilly socks and just a little white gown with a crimson ribbon,” Junia stated. “I used to be like, I need to be her, as a result of I favored her outfit.”
She and Laufey attended the identical colleges, performed in the identical orchestras, and ultimately utilized to all the similar schools apart from the Berklee School of Music in Boston, the place Laufey was accepted and studied music enterprise. Junia departed for St. Andrews, in Scotland. Their time aside was “like a development spurt for the character,” stated Junia, who found a “spicy” humorousness whereas learning worldwide relations.
Junia studied music as a minor however didn’t intention to turn into knowledgeable musician herself. “I needed to be a put-together, good child who obtained good grades and went to regulation college or labored in finance or one thing,” she stated. She cherished music however didn’t precisely see her place in it. “I simply knew that it was one thing that I used to be going to surrender.”
After graduating in 2022, Junia spent 4 uninspiring days working for a monetary expertise firm. Then she interned on the inventive group for model partnerships at Common Music Group, considering that she may pursue a profession on the enterprise facet of the music trade.
Laufey had remained centered on music, together with a 2021 EP, “Typical of Me,” that she had launched whereas in school. (Junia took the Polaroid that’s on the album cowl.) In the summertime of 2023, Laufey’s profession exploded, by means of a bossa nova-inflected music that went from TikTok virality to late-night TV.
Junia conceptualized a music video for that music, “From the Begin,” that was impressed partially by the Nordic designers Arne Jacobsen and Eero Saarinen. The video now has greater than 28 million views on YouTube. Quickly she was taking up extra work, like conceiving merchandise and poring over outdated posters from the Montreux Jazz Competition to encourage artwork for Laufey’s upcoming tour.
Junia was taking weeks off from her internship to assist her sister’s breakthrough, nevertheless it was turning into untenable. Every sibling needed to work full time with the individual whom she felt understood her imaginative and prescient on a mobile degree. She left her internship at Common final September.
“I feel she actually needed to show herself on her personal earlier than turning into, like, ‘the sister,’” Laufey stated in a telephone interview. Followers mustn’t underestimate how a lot of the public-facing Laufey was influenced by Junia, she added. “Each single visible factor that you just see is hers,” Laufey stated. “Each picture shoot. Each outfit, she works with the stylist. Each music video. Each cowl.”
Laufey stated she was unlikely to purchase any article of clothes with out operating it by her sister. “She’s my type icon,” she stated.
‘It’s the Clone’
On the sweaty afternoon once we met for lunch final month, Junia was visiting New York to assist together with her sister’s efficiency on “The Kelly Clarkson Present.” She had been working with a set designer to examine an egg-shaped chair acceptable for the bitter fringe of Laufey’s music “Bored”: “Perhaps you’re simply method too useless to be fascinating/Child, hold talkin’ however no person’s listening.”
Junia wore a high-neck, pleated shirt and Mary Janes to the interview, with a pair of Miu Miu sun shades with honey-colored lenses. The sisters have zeroed in on a method that leans French and female, a mixture of dreamy nightgowns and A-line attire. It remembers the Fifties and ’60s — durations additionally current in Laufey’s music — and steers away from something that might learn as Thirties jazz-club cosplay. “I’ve a strict no-vests coverage,” Junia stated.
The look has been enthusiastically adopted by the followers who stream into Laufey’s live shows dressed roughly just like the lady on the duvet of Junia’s childhood violin workbook. One live performance attendee joked that it was almost inconceivable to fulfill up with associates at a Laufey present as a result of everybody was carrying comparable bows of their hair.
“She’s actually good at discovering one thing, romanticizing it, and simply understanding it’s going to catch on,” Laufey stated.
Junia can think about a future through which she works for a clothes or equipment model, and he or she has been making an attempt to fortify her connections with the style world. She has been making the rounds at a launch occasion for Marc Jacobs and the Vivienne Westwood public sale at Christie’s. She wish to be within the viewers at future trend weeks.
However she nonetheless plans to work together with her sister for so long as it’s an possibility. She doesn’t fear about collapsing the identities that they labored so laborious to differentiate; somewhat, she spends loads of time on-line poking enjoyable at her sister by taking bites out of her post-show quesadillas or making her take out the trash.
These glimpses into the mundane actuality of siblinghood appear to be appreciated by the duo’s followers. In a single TikTok video, Junia ventures out right into a cheering crowd exterior one among Laufey’s reveals. “Cease the fanfare!” she says. “It’s the clone!” They cheer anyway.
