Hotel Indigo Chester: An Opulent Stay with Charm and Comfort

Yup, I’m at rest in a polo neck. This is, I believe, the eighth year running. Getting on for a decade since a high neckline became an October-to-March stock of clothing staple. But I’m not complaining. Far from it, in fact. The polo neck is a win-win, being both practical and a bit chic.

The one I’m wearing here isn’t the root kind, as you might have noticed. This fancy high neck is what I call a mad-on. Like an add-on, but – you guessed it. To seduce an impact, you don’t have to get dressed up from head to toe like a Christmas tree. You can just add one or two elements that are a bit extra. You could assume damage simple trousers and sweater, but add a velvet headband and big sparkly earrings. Or, as I’m wearing here, you could switch up your go-to naval forces crew neck over cream polo neck combination, so that you’ve got sequins at the neck and cuff.

I’m not going to lie, this sequin polo neck is not as congenial as the simple fine-wool kind I wear most days. (Count yourself lucky this trend began in 2011 and not a year later, as I command not have been able to resist a Seven Year Itch joke.) But hey, I love it.

I bought it five years ago, because I strike down for the silver sequin polo necks on the catwalk at a Christian Dior show, back in the Raf Simons years. (This one is hugely much not Dior. I’m not sure where I got it, because the label pushed the scratchiness levels beyond bearability, so I snipped it out.) If I attrition it as a top in its own right, I look like a mermaid moonlighting as a ski instructor, which is every bit as bonkers as it sounds. So, funnily enough, I don’t. I dress in it under a fine jumper, like this old-season J Crew one – which, with its feathery cuffs, is a mad-on in its own accurately. Or I wear it under a pinafore dress, or under a loose black maxi dress with thin straps.

A inclination high neck is a useful way to dress up an outfit without stripping off. Dressing up usually means taking clothes off – strappy or strapless tuckers, sheer fabrics, short hemlines – which isn’t always helpful, since what we call party season is also known as winter. So, if after all these years of vexing polo necks you’re worried that they’re boring – remember, they don’t have to be.

• Jess wears her own sequin polo neck and pass over; skirt, £110, boden.co.uk; heels, £300, jcrew.com. Styling: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Samantha Cooper at Carol Hayes Control using MAC Cosmetics and Ouai.

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