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A polo neck, roll-neck (South Africa), turtleneck (United States, Canada), or skivvy is a garment—usually a sweater—with a close-fitting collar that folds over and covers the neck. It can also refer to the type of neckline, the style of collar itself, or be used as an adjective ("polo necked").
A simpler variant of the standard polo neck is the mock polo neck (or mock turtleneck), that resembles the polo neck with the soft fold at its top and the way it stands up around the neck, but both ends of the tube forming the collar are sewn to the neckline. This is mainly used to achieve the appearance of a polo neck where the fabric would fray, roll, or otherwise behave badly unless sewn. The mock polo neck clings to the neck smoothly, is easy to manufacture, and works well with a zip closure.
From the late 19th century on polo necks were commonly worn by fishermen, manual workers, athletes, sailors and naval officers. Since the middle of that century, black polo necks have been closely associated with leftist radical Academic staff, , and .Mary Ann Frese Witt, The Humanities and the Modern World, 2000, , , pp. 463–464.Deirdre Bair, Simone de Beauvoir: A Biography, 1990, p. 360. The polo neck jumper became an iconic symbol of the French philosopher Michel Foucault. Polo necks also became a big fashion for wealthy young men after they were worn by European film stars Marcello Mastroianni and Yves Montand.Guido Vergani, Dizionario della moda, 2009, p. 348 .
Greta Garbo often wore polo necks and trousers privately, as later Audrey Hepburn would do in official photographs.
Vladimir PutinZbigniew Brzezinski, Putin's Choice, 2008. of Russia, Andreas PapandreouTheodore C. Kariotis, The Greek Socialist Experiment: Papandreou's Greece 1981–1989, 1992 of Greece, and Emmanuel Macron of France are examples of European leaders who are fond of wearing polo necks.
Over time it became a fad among teenage girls, especially in a lightweight form that emphasised their figures. It was not long before Hollywood was also exploiting this image as part of the sweater girl look.
By the late 1950s the "tight turtleneck" had been adopted as part of the preppy style among students, a style emphasising neatness, tidiness and grooming. This would become an important aspect of the polo neck's image in the United States.
Turtlenecks were also famous in hippies in 1960s and 1970s.
Very elegant polo necks of silk or nylon knit, especially made with French cuffs for formal dress affairs, have also seen success in American fashion.
John Berendt wrote in Esquire
The designer Halston said
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