Threads in time #1: Turtleneck
Welcome to Threads in time, a new series within the Stitch newsletter where we’ll look into the history of fashion through individual garments
A turtleneck is a tight piece of clothing with a high collar that sits tightly on the neck. In the past, it was likened to being strangled by a really weak guy, and declared a garment worn only by Muppets or Nora Ephron characters. In other words, it wasn’t very likable. And this unfortunate reputation followed the turtleneck since it occurred. The first turtleneck appeared in the 15th century to protect soldiers from the heavy chainmail they wore in battle. It took 500 years for the turtleneck to be widely accepted and, finally, loved.
Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, sailors, golf, and polo players wore turtlenecks as practical garments that existed solely to protect their necks. And then came the 20th century ushering in a new era for the turtleneck. At the beginning of the century, it became a garment worn daily by men, especially academics, philosophers, intellectuals, artists, and actors like Ernest Hemingway or Clark Gable. Coco Chanel introduced turtlenecks for women in the 1930s, but it was the Italian cinematography that finally put them on the map and into women’s closets. Film historian Maureen Turim wrote in her paper ‘Fashion Shapes: Film, the Fashion Industry, and the Image of Women’ that the real change happened when Holywood movies, together with the magazine and advertising industry, figured out how to introduce new ways of social behavior through clothing.
Suddenly everyone wanted to be blonde like Marilyn Monroe or have a slim waist like Audrey Hepburn. But most of all, everyone wanted to be Italian. Postwar Italy was the epitome of style and glamour. Cultural historian Stephen Gundle stated in his paper ‘Hollywood Glamour and Mass Consumption in Postwar Italy’ that by the end of the 1950s, everyone wanted to have a Roman holiday and drive a Fiat or at least a Vespa. The most significant PR and allure Rome still has came from Federico Fellini’s 1960 movie ‘La Dolce Vita.’ Marcello Mastroianni’s performance wearing a turtleneck was so influential that in the Croatian language, we call the garment by that movie - dolčevita.
This love relationship between turtlenecks and movie characters continued throughout the century, and the turtleneck finally became a widely accepted unisex garment. We saw Jean Seberg, Audrey Hepburn, Natalie Wood, Diane Keaton, and many others wearing turtlenecks on the big screen. In pop culture, a turtleneck became synonymous with elegance and mystique. The Beatles wore them, Steve Jobs never took his Miyake ones off, Nora Ephron wrote short stories about them, and Hillary Clinton wore one for her first White House event as the first lady in 1993.
Luckily for those who love them, turtlenecks have become anti-fashion garments, just like T-shirts, jeans, or black pumps. They’re above trends, and we’ll likely never stop wearing them.
Always have a minimum of five in my wardrobe🫣