The Redundant Turtleneck

A good idea? I'm for layers but...this pushes trad to preppy. And trad is not preppy. From M Magazine Feburary 1987

Turning Down The DB Blazer

M Magazine - April 1986 (click on image to read text)

Cashmere blazer and turtleneck

Turning the DB down with corduroy

A reader asked,

"On this note of tieless dressing - help me out. What the hell do I do with a blue blazer, double breasted one, brass buttons etc..I love it on the hanger, but everytime I put it on I seem...overdressed, too sea captain?? Any thoughts? Casual with jeans? - the great zamboni"

There is the natural aversion to a DB blazer with a turtleneck. Especially a white one. Bad memories are triggered of my days working for the Boss, having my ass chewed and being forced to eat cinnamon toast somewhere in Tampa.

But as 'M' Magazine so elegantly presents above, it can be done with understated taste. After all, I don't care how much money George had. He was from Cleveland. Anyway, 'M' answers the Zamboni question better than I ever could and with much fewer words.

The cords are a great touch and everything here is about texture rather than color. The ribbed turtleneck. The ribbed trouser. The ribbed thing in his wallet. All contrasting against the smooth surface of the blazer. Casual but not sea captain. Or, baseball team owner.

Trad Rules & General Ising

Neiman Marcus Christmas Catalog - 1972

Neiman Marcus turtleneck - 1995

Useless -

Just say no
Not even for blow

"No pocket square with turtlenecks." Gen. Ising

I don't like suits with out ties...too much. I think, with tan gabardine or poplin, you can get away with it in Summer. Just. Otherwise, you're gonna look like President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

I don't like pocket squares...too much. Here my 'Dick Cavett Jacket' loses its understated charm thanks to an overpriced piece of silk. In fact, no pocket square with turtlenecks is my rule. And Trad rule's rule.

This black cashmere turtleneck was a Christmas gift 15 or so years ago and it's still going strong. Elegant and 'at home' in the '70s, the turtleneck seemed a natural with men's blow dried hair, longer sideburns and driving gloves.

Of course I'm General Ising. And I am an army man.

More U Boats & Turtlenecks

Smirnoff 1978

A Man's Movie: The McKenzie Break

It's not Hogan's Heroes

Cpt Jack Connor - Fun loving - sex loving piranha

Major Perry- A steady Eddie

Cpt Willi Schlueter- Hitler Youth honor grad

Good with a Sten gun

"Willi, looks like we're both in the shithouse."

William Norton wrote the screenplay for The McKenzie Break and said about his movies, "I don't think your I.Q. is low enough." Mine is. Released in 1970, I caught this on TV in 1973 and loved it. 37 years later it holds up well and is screaming to be remade. Based on an actual German POW break, the film is about three very different men.

Brian Keith does a passable Irish accent and a deadly accurate flask tilt as Cpt Jack Connor. A born risk taker, a reporter before the war and no time to play by the rules during the war. He rolls the dice on allowing a POW break with the hope of nabbing the big fish.

This doesn't sit well with camp commander, Major Perry. In over his head, cowardly and perfectly suited to a long career in government, Perry is replaced by Connor and can only bitch and snitch. It's a lousy part nailed by Ian Hendry who also nailed the bad guy in Michael Caine's, Get Carter, a beautiful film from 1971 where Caine compares Hendry's eyes to, "piss holes in the snow."

Cpt Willie Schlueter comes off with a natural charm but you soon realize he'd kill his own mother to move up a rank. Helmut Griem (Max in Cabaret) reminds me of Nazis in Hans Fallada's, "Every Man Dies Alone." Charming and erudite but nothing more than a thug, but in evening clothes.

Griem, Hendry and Keith are all dead and Mr Norton just passed away. But I see these three men every day. In others and in myself. Actually, I see all three in me. I'm a risk taker but I'm also a coward and can be a thug. When I saw this film for the first time I was 15 and all I saw were the turtleneck sweaters.

The Turtleneck and Alexander Mundy

I must have been doing my Alexander Mundy impersonation the day this was taken. Despite great effort I never could get my hair to part to the right.

3rd Season opening to "It Takes a Thief." Cool didn't get any cooler.

"Let me get this straight...you want me to steal?" Oh, man...how I wanted to be Alexander Mundy when I was a kid.

I usually kicked off my Robert Wagner impersonation with, "Noah...let me get this straight" to establish with my audience - - usually at the lunch table - - just where this line was coming from. The key was Noah 'cause every kid I knew watched the show and it was darned difficult to cram "Alexander Mundy" into the lead. We're talking six syllables compared to just two. More importantly than the "No-ah" utterance was the turtleneck. It really helped pull off the Al Mundy impersonation. My preference was black. A shoulder holster would've helped enormously but those were difficult to secure even then.

Turtlenecks are still an important part of Autumnal Trad wear. And I've had many that refused to die. I may even have the one I'm wearing in the picture. Maybe it's because they're seasonal and get a rest...I don't really know but they can go on forever. Cotton is great. Merino is cool. But you really graduate when you buy cashmere. Two ply or three will keep the turtleneck from turning into a cowlneck. I can't wear my black cashmere turtleneck without a desire to spin a combination dial and steal my girlfriend's jewelry. I like to wear it with black wool trousers, black tassel loafers and tucked in with a simple black calf strap with sterling monogrammed buckle. Very slimming as well.

Despite all of the years trying - - I never got beyond, "Let me get this straight...you want me to steal?" But after many decades of trying I finally got my hair to part to the right.