As usual, The Blogazine is glad to offer a public service announcement for anyone even remotely interested in fashion: turtlenecks are definitely back. Of course, this is not the first time we deal with the return of this classy item, but the 70s influence seems to be quite strong in 2015, hence the booming turtleneck upheaval.
While the very first prototype of a turtleneck has been used by soldiers during war, it has later been transformed by Queen Elizabeth I with starched ruffles, only later to be rediscovered under the name of Polo Necks. It was around 1860 when polo players from England started using them, soon followed by navy sailors, officers and menial workers, who adopted the garment as part of their everyday look.
During the last century, though, the high collar jumper turned into the symbol of intellectuals and artists, smoothing the way to early feminists, who, unassumingly, turned it into a real fashion trend. One of the most fashionable moment of the item, before Phoebe Philo brought it back with her 2012 campaign at Céline, is to be found in Funny Face, the cult movie about Richard Avedon, where a young and bright Audrey Hepburn matches a turtleneck with skinny black pants and ballerinas. That is surely one of those eternal moments in fashion: in fact, whether we should still see turtleneck in the future, or it will prove to be just a passing flare, it will remain an evergreen piece in that silly story that is fashion history.
