Today’s reader mail comes from reader E, who asks how one dresses up an ultrafine turtleneck…
The thought of wearing turtlenecks hasn’t crossed my mind since I was in high school, but then I saw the ultrafine turtlenecks being sold at Gap. I was wondering how one would go about creating an outfit or dressing it up for work.
We like to wear turtlenecks beneath things — it helps us stay warmer, raises the neckline of otherwise questionable items, serves as a protective barrier between us and the clothes (less drycleaning = good) and also lets us get more use out of items that would otherwise be limited to one season. (Pictured above: Women: Ultrafine turtleneck – modern red, available at Gap for $24 — J.Crew also makes some nice tissue turtlenecks.) In terms of styling, we suggest wearing it beneath…
- A short-sleeved jacket. Some manufacturers purposely make jackets intended for wear only in the summer. Some hints: those jackets are bright white, beige, or made from linen. Other jackets, though, are intended not only for wear year-round, but are almost always intended to have a layer with long sleeves worn beneath them.
- A 3/4-sleeved jacket. You may want to play with the visual of the two sleeves so close together by adding a bracelet or cuff, worn on top of the turtleneck’s sleeve, but below the jacket.
- A dolman-sleeved dress, a batwing sweater, or a cowl neck. Some of these items are safe for work, but sometimes it feels as if the entire top will fall off your shoulders if you bend a certain way. We like the turtleneck as a way to both protect against that happening, as well as to communicate to others that you have taken steps to prevent that from happening.
- A cap-sleeved dress. This works particularly well with a color-on-color combination, or to raise the neckline of an otherwise low-cut dress.
We’ll keep thinking, but that’s what we have at the moment. We will also mention (but can’t quite bring ourselves to recommend) the “turtleneck beneath the buttoned blouse” look that we seem to recall seeing in many early ’80s shows. Readers, how do you wear turtlenecks beneath clothes?
Check out some other thin turtlenecks, below…
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