The struggle to stay warm while energy bills skyrocket across Europe finally hit the catwalks of Parisian men. The French solution? Make them wear turtlenecks.
At Givenchy they were high and black, while at Wales Bonner they came in a tight salmon pink. Elsewhere, there were classic black turtlenecks worn with faux fur stoles at Hed Mayner and candy pink versions at Walter Van Beirendonck.
On the opening night of Paris Fashion Week, Saint Laurent showed off funnel-neck sweaters, some of which turned into dresses. They covered the mouths of their wearer and seemed to swallow the models whole.
The turtleneck has a long tradition in European style. “They’re a classic,” agreed Matthew Williams, creative director of French brand Givenchy backstage, who opened his show with five of them. “We do that every season.” Williams is best known for his punk tailoring, but this season he styled his turtlenecks under sharp black suits and broad-shouldered camel coats. Some hit the chin, while others were wide enough to wear a sweater underneath.
In the 1960s, turtlenecks entered the wardrobes of intellectuals like Samuel Beckett and Michel Foucault, as well as Italian film stars like Marcello Mastroianni, who regularly paired them with a trench coat and wide-brimmed hat. Overnight they would become the unofficial uniform of both Left Bank thinkers and the Riviera red carpet.
Some Saint Laurent turtlenecks seemed to swallow the models whole. Photo: Pixelformula/SIPA/REX/ShutterstockRecently, however, the turtleneck has become a hot topic in France. It began last autumn when French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire urged officials to swap their shirt and tie for a turtleneck instead of turning up the heat – and culminated when Emmanuel Macron arrived at a meeting in black cashmere, which the opposition leader prompted Marine Le Pen to tweet: “You don’t have enough heating? Let them wear cashmere.”
Also a favorite among the 1% – both fictional (Successions Shiv Roy wears 700-pound versions of Gabriela Hearst) and actual (LVMH’s billionaire owners, the Arnault family, are rarely seen in anything else) – they’re de facto ones too Uniform of the tech CEOs who are among the richest people in the world.
Few in France will want to look like Macron this week. Tomorrow, Paris will grind to a halt as thousands of workers on the capital’s public transport network go on strike against his government’s proposed reform to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.
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One solution is the fashion fleece. A chunky cream version of North Face has been spotted three times in two days – not on the catwalk, but by the people who make it possible: the riders, journalists and photographers. Outside the Givenchy show, a rider, Khaldo, said he was so warm you could “just wear a t-shirt underneath.” Underneath, he agreed, a turtleneck wasn’t necessary.