Choker Necklace - Incredible Origins And History Through The Times

The Star (Dancer On Stage) by Edgar Degas c. 1878. pastel on paper. Paris, Musée d'Orsay Image: Public Domain via wikiart.org

The choker is back and we've seen it for some time now, both on a daily basis and on festive occasions. It has been worn by pop culture princesses, gothic fairies, fashionistas, and also by people who have always enjoyed this type of adornment.
So, one day I decided to look back at the history of chokers... And here is the story of this incredibly fascinating piece of jewelry & fashion accessory. 

And what exactly it is? 
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A choker is a close-fitting necklace worn around the neck. Chokers can be made of a variety of materials, including velvet, plastic, beads, leather, metal etc. Of course, such a band of material can be adorned in a variety of ways. We have seen them already - chokers with sequins, studs, brooches, pins and pendants.

From Attribute Of Slavery To Expression Of Style & Fashion 

​In antiquity chockers were created out of the ideal of slave lockets. Slaves worn iron chockers around their necks and ankles.

As a sign of slavery, chokers or the iron neck rings did not disappear even in later times. Restrained African captives wore iron neck rings and chains either as they were transported to the West African coast or on board ship. The chains would link to the African's hands, or to another enslaved person to keep them from escaping. 

And yet, if the neck rings or chokers were made of another material - luxurious, fine, and brilliant, then they became fashionable. But they also became a symbol of personal status. They transformed into necklaces.

History...Origins....Stories...

Long before the 90's fashion icons highlighted this special fashion accessory, the chokers were worn by peoples of ancient civilizations. The history of the choker necklace goes back hundreds of years. There have been many types of chokers worn during ancient times and for different reasons. But the style in which it has been worn – close fitting against the neck – has remained the same since it first came into existence. 
Chokers appeared during times of earliest civilization's: Ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians wore them regularly. Gold chokers were also made by Sumerian artisans around 2500 BC. Meanwhile Ancient Egyptians, instead of wearing it as a trend, believed chokers had special and protective power. They put jewelry on the parts of their bodies they felt needed the most protection — such as the neck, wrists, and head. Chokers or rather wide collars in Ancient Egypt were often made with gold, which symbolized the skin of the sun god Ra. Egyptians also combined gold and lapis lazuli. Those were the emblems of their style and also reference to their gods and religious practice. 
"Besides their decorative function, necklaces served amuletic purposes. Amulets in the shape of one god or another comprised the numerous rows of necklaces. A string of hippopotamus charms, symbolizing the pregnant hippopotamus goddess Tawert, for example, might be worn by a pregnant woman to call for protection from this goddess of childbirth," Bob Brier and Hoyt Hobbs write in Daily Life of the Ancient Egyptians. 

Red ribbon choker as a part of fashionable dress during 1790s

François Hubert Drouais. Marquise de Caumont de la Force, 1767. Collection: David Owsley Museum of Art Image: Wikimedia Commons

Later on evidence of wearing chokers already applies to European fashion trends. However, even then meaning of social symbolic was not completely lost. It can be assumed that chokers made an appearance even before then Anne Boleyn was portrayed wearing a choker necklace in the paintings of that era. Her famous necklace was made up of a string of pearls and a letter “B” pendant and she wore it closely around her neck. And......the wearing of monogram pendants was very fashionable at that time. 

Chokers were especially in vogue in 1798 during the French Revolution. Female French expatriates wore red ribbons around their necks as a way of paying tribute to those who had lost their lives to the guillotine. They also wore black velvet ribbons around their necks which symbolized mourning. During the French Revolution those women took to wearing chokers - red ribbons around their necks to pay homage to those who met their death at the guillotine. The ribbon could be worn around the neck, or another fashion came in the form of an "X" around the shoulders and back. 
The award for the most macabre trend inspired by the years Terror was also the thin red choker. Red was the color of Revolution, but it was also meant to imitate the droplets of blood around a severed head! 

During the French Revolution, female French ex-patriots also used to wear a thin red ribbon choker as a silent testament to their own narrow escape and in memory of their many friends and family members who were not as lucky. 
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In the 1860's, the choker necklace had some links to prostitutes. Manet's famous painting of "Olympia," (1863) depicted a courtesan  wearing a black ribbon around her neck. During this era, a ribbon around the neck could mean a woman was a prostitute.
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Despite of this connotation, chokers were also worn during this time by Royals during the Victorian era. Alexandra, Princess of Wales, reportedly wore thick rows of pearls and velvet to cover a scar on her neck which made her self-conscious. She was influential person at that time in expanding the trend. 

Alexandra was actually fan of a pearl and diamond combinations and is known to wearing several strings of pearls at once around her neck. In the 20th century it inspired goth subculture representatives to wear black chokers made of lace, glass and metal. Since times of Alexandra choker-style necklaces have been named collier du chien (dog collar) if it was set with pearls and diamonds. For Princess Alexandra this was an elegant way to conceal a surgery scar on her neck. Since then choker necklace became a fashion must-have amongst the rich for decades to follow.
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Emergence 
of a Choker Necklace
in the 20th and 21st Centuries

After a few years of absence, choker necklaces had a renaissance twice in the 20th century. Chokers were so fashionable during Art Deco fashion era. They were seen in fashion campaigns that photographer Edward Steichen did for luxurious brand Chanel and the magazine Vanity Fair etc. 

Around 1940s chokers were in vogue again when fashionable ladies wore colliers de chien (translated as dog collars in English).
During 40s women in the USA, in particular, began experimenting with those necklaces. An issue of Life magazine, in October 1944, announced that young girls had been reviving "a dowager fashion of 40 years ago"- and illustrated the trend with photos of models proudly wearing the now vaguely rebellious “dog collars.”

And once again chokers appeared, this time as a unisex style feature, in the 70s. It was one element of the experiments with gender-blending that Mick Jagger, Jimi Hendrix, and Elvis Presley engaged in. 

And again chokers were so in fashion of 90s when the necklaces favored by Britney Spears and Gwen Stefani would also be worn by Prince, Lenny Kravitz and many other celebrities of that time. 
In the 90s, the so called tatoo necklaces were just so popular that basically every girl had one of them.Choker necklaces era of the 90s was revived by film industry as well. Chokers were showed up in such movies as Leon the Professional, where Natalie Portman aka Matilda wore a velvet ribbon with a sun-shaped charm, not to mention Mia Wallace’s black ribbon choker with ruby stone from Pulp Fiction. 
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In the middle of the 90s so many breeds of goth subculture also wore chokers. Pentagram chokers, spiked dog collars, silver ball chains and even Victorian style chokers made of black lace and glass beads gained so much of popularity.

Chokers of the 21st Century 

Chokers are back to remind us about the brightest moments of fashion from the 1990's.
Latvian fashion designer Indra Komarova (TALENTED talented.company/) have been creating innovative and minimalist chokers with slightly surreal-like form. Those are unisex chokers like belts around your neck in seafoam green and classic black. One of them is quite different as it features sophisticated linden flower to emphasize contemporary aesthetic minimalism which characterizes this brand. 
In my opinion, this is a truly amazing and creative return of historical legend - choker necklace of the 21st Century. 
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All chokers and outfits in the photo gallery
made by fashion brand 'Talented' (Indra Komarova) from Latvia, Riga 
​Photographer: Bruno Kabucis 
​Website: talented.company/

References and further reading: 

​​talented.company/
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visforvintage.net/2013/06/07/history-of-pearls/
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www.bustle.com/p/the-slightly-creepy-history-of-chokers-will-probably-surprise-you-34124
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​​www.janeausten.co.uk/the-choker-necklace/

​www.goldenagebeads.com/blog/the-fascinating-history-of-choker-necklaces.html
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