the.com/turtleneck
the sweater that hides a neck and projects an entire personality.
means A high, close-fitting collar that rolls up to cover the neck, or a sweater featuring one.
from A plain English compound, joining 'turtle' to 'neck' — the image being a turtle drawing its head back into the protective fold of its shell, much as the wearer's neck disappears into the rolled collar. The 'turtle' itself traces back through earlier forms (the older 'tortue,' related to the tortoise family) before settling into the rounded little word we use today. The garment name is a relatively modern coinage; in Britain the same neckline is often called a 'polo neck' instead.
- Steve Jobs
- Wore the same black Issey Miyake design daily
- Original name
- Called a polo neck across most of Britain
- Military roots
- Sailors wore them against brutal North Sea cold
- Villain coded
- Cinema's go-to for sinister art-world masterminds
- Diving bell
- 19th-century athletes wore them while playing polo
steve jobs — wore black turtlenecks daily as his signature look from the 1990s onward
audrey hepburn — iconic in turtlenecks in 1950s-60s films like breakfast at tiffany's
kurt cobain — frequently wore black turtlenecks with ripped jeans during nirvana's peak in the 1990s