By Madeleine Morales ’18, Lifestyle Editor

Turtleneck season is here. A big advocate for turtlenecks, I decided to chat with the resident turtleneck expert himself, Mr. Merle Black, to receive insight into the spirit of the season and appropriate places to flex this fashion. Mr. Black corroborates my thoughts regarding the up-and-coming rebirth of the turtleneck trend. He believes in a turtlenecks’ potential because “a brother-in-law who works out of NYC who is financially successful gave [him] a stack of these,” in reference to his snugly fitting black turtleneck he wore. The historian and fashionista also added in admiration “the world’s great architects wear all black and turtlenecks and slicked back hair, so I do the same, with the little hair I have,” motioning to his voluminous mane, tucked behind his ears. Because we know Mr. Black is such a fan of Frank Lloyd Wright, this assertion should surprise no one.

On the particular day I spoke with Mr. Black, he was prepared to dance the night away at a jazz concert with friends and claimed it is absolutely necessary to wear a black turtleneck to an event such as that, and was confident in stating “I am pretty cool, ready for a jazz concert, also to torment them,” referring to his dates of Pat and Tim Dunn, as well as Charles McGivern, who Mr. Black claims is the ultimate fashionista of CCDS. Maybe Mr. McGivern could be, one day, if he owned a turtleneck, or followed another one of Mr. Black’s trends. Will we ever know? Probably not, because Mr. McGivern is open in stating he refuses the masochism of a tie, and I assume turtlenecks would fall into the same category. But I do believe in the turtleneck trend and now you know, so does the incredible Merle Black.