October 14, 2019
Yes, if you live where it’s cold, you might easily want a stack of these turtlenecks! If you don’t anticipate that much cold weather in your life, or you just don’t feel that you’re going to need more than a couple of these tops, you can skip this garment entirely, or substitute tee shirts or button-front shirts…
As always, you make the rules; these are just guidelines, within which you plan YOUR wardrobe!
wild cherry cotton turtleneck – Lands’ End
One other bit of advice when purchasing these turtlenecks: if you’re POSITIVE that you’ll absolutely never take off your top sweater in public, you can certainly buy the tissue-thin version of these. But if you’re like me and it’s entirely possible that you’re going to pull off your sweater in your friend’s very warm home, or when sitting by a fireplace, a more “tee-shirt” weight turtleneck will let you still be completely decently covered when you get your hair re-arranged from the sweater static!
I love the way that this rose makes an otherwise really neutral outfit look romantic and feminine:
ivory fisherman sweater – L.L.Bean; rose cotton turtleneck – Lands’ End; silk gauze scarf – Nordstrom; rosewood loafers – Naturalizer; antique white corduroy pants – L.L.Bean
This is such a classic color combination, but I never get tired of it:
earrings – Halogen; emerald cotton turtleneck – Lands’ End; navy cabled cardigan – L.L.Bean; green loafers – Etienne Aigner; navy corduroy pants – L.L.Bean
I wasn’t at all sure what I was going to put with this grey, but then I found the scarf and it all fell into place!
scarf – Blumarine; charcoal cabled sweater – Eileen Fisher; seafoam cotton turtleneck – Lands’ End; pewter boots – Franco Sarto; corduroy pants – L.L.Bean
Maybe you get tired of always wearing cool accent colors with black? I turtleneck and a really snazzy pair of socks can change everything!
black cabled cashmere cardigan – Lands’ End; dark caramel turtleneck – Lands’ End; striped socks – Missoni; loafers – Fipflop; black corduroy pants – L.L.Bean
I say it all the time – if you like yellow, wear it often! You’ll really stand out in a crowd because not very many people will be wearing the same color…
saddle brown cashmere crewneck – L.L.Bean; butter yellow cotton turtleneck – L.L.Bean; ribbed velvet socks – Darner Socks; loafers – Sperry; dark caramel corduroy pants – Lands’ End
If you want to find a way to wear a favorite scarf more frequently, finding a turtleneck that picks up one of the colors in the scarf will make it easier…
scarf – Missoni; beet root cotton turtleneck – Lands’ End; black cotton cabled crewneck sweater – L.L.Bean; loafers – Gentle Souls; black velvet pants – Lands’ End
The 13-week wardrobe becomes more and more “cool-weather” oriented, and the guide-wheel turns inexorably toward winter…
turtlenecks – Lands’ End; blue tee shirt – Lands’ End; black cardigan – Banana Republic; shirt – Lands’ End; black sweater – L.L.Bean; striped sweater – Madewell; floral cardigan – Lands’ End; black jeans – Lands’ End; black pants – Lands’ End; tweed skirt – J.Crew; black dress – Lands’ End
Many of you have asked if I have a full-year plan for this wardrobe… Well… Of course I had a pretty good overall picture of where I was going, but your question has compelled me to actually put it down in print!
But you do understand that some of these will be more clearly and completely defined as we move forward, right?
love,
Janice
p.s. Four years ago I was traveling, so I flashed back to a handful of great navy-based travel wardrobes…
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This series might be my favorite so far! But I can’t decide, since every single thing you post is amazing!!
Janice,
Thank you for the ongoing and changing weekly illustration as well as today’s seasonal listings ! These keep the big picture in mind . By the way, your recent packing clusters are right up my alley in concept, though not by colors, which are easily adapted to suit my personal coloring ! When I really give it some thought, all of your formats are really a type of expanded clustering , but keeping it to 5-6 pieces in a given neutral or colors that all work together keeps my brain happy ! Multiple clusters with one or two bridging pieces with the other clusters seems to be the ticket for my packing ! It is sometimes deeply challenging to find those bridging garments , so just having interchangeable solids between the clusters is also workable as long as there are accessories that pull the various outfits together. For very short stays I use the single cluster method, for a week I use your “ Whatever’s Clean 13”, though I might add two more tops and make it 15, and for stays longer than a week I jump to your 4×4 , all of which have simplified my packing angst ! For seasonal wardrobes, I sometimes use two 4×4 ‘s for variety . Not all of the pieces go together, but enough do to keep me satisfied ! So thank you dear lady, once again, for all you do and have done with that organized brain of yours — I just love it ! Big big hugs !
Hugs back at you! Wardrobes don’t have to be complicated, if we just have a plan, and a bit of discipline…
love,
Janice
Yes! Your system has changed my life in that I’m much better able to see the true holes in my wardrobe and the best place to spend my money. It also helped tremendously to identify my accent colors (which I struggled with for a long time) because now I know what to look for.
In case you’re wondering, I have neutral cores of black, charcoal, and navy with accent colors of burgandy (pink in the warmer months) and purple. And of course, a few red pieces that I wear during the holidays. I’d like to work on adding teal as appropriate. You are a genius!
Long-time follower, first-timer poster: I am on the hunt for turtlenecks and t-shirts (long- & short-sleeved) that have no seams down the sides. Ribbed is okay. Any suggestions? Oh, and I’d like it to be a company that’s ethical, too… Not asking too much, right? ;-) I did just discover great tank tops from Everlane which have just a seam down the back, which works. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Lands’ End has a Relaxed Seamless Turtleneck…perhaps they also have seamless t-shirts…
Sorry, it is only a seamless neck, I think….
Maybe Uniqlo 3D knits? I think they’re knit on circular machines, and thus wouldn’t have seams…
hugs,
Janice
Oh, that rose turtleneck! I wants one.
Me too!!! It’s just gorgeous!
Janice, these color combinations are scrumptious!
Lands End has a 40% off full priced styles running through today. I got the turtleneck above (it’s really cotton-modal not 100% cotton, which I like better) and the velvet jeans you featured earlier this week, both 40% off – great deal.
Thank you!?
At Lands’ End, the cotton-modal is the lightweight turtleneck mentioned …there is also a 100% supima cotton turtleneck available in most of the colors which is a thicker turtleneck that can be worn without a top layer or camisole underneath.
I like the lightweight ones for work under a jacket or cardigan. Occasionally I’ll wear them on the weekend under a sweater. But the cotton ones aren’t formal enough for work, at least at my work. I also find Lands End’s cotton turtlenecks are too tight and annoy me. Hopefully the modal turtleneck is looser like it appears.
Thank you very much, Janice, for this post and the previous ones on the same subject : I must say that, if I appreciate all your posts with advices to be smart, I also enjoy a lot the posts concerning the simplest clothes of every day whom the aim is confort and heat. Because reading other opinions is very rich (I’m also very interested by opinions of everyone here ;) ).
For the first time ever, I ordered from Land’s End. I was impressed by the quality and the overall fit, but found that I didn’t like neck of the turtleneck sweater. When I rolled it over, the gap between the base seam and the finished edge of the neck was just too big. Disappointing!