Originally jewelry worn by royalty, choker necklaces have been passed down from BDSM culture to punk rock to being one of the latest trends in underground fashion. Some of the greatest music legends of all time including John Lennon, Prince, Jimi Hendrix and David Bowie were fans and occasional wearers of the tight neckpiece. In 2017, all the biggest rappers, from Quavo to Lil Yachty, Future and Lil Uzi Vert, were wearing chokers. As the future becomes more streamlined, gender norms will be reduced slowly over time allowing for the emergence of more unisex trends and androgynous lifestyles.
Manifesting from a dark history, chokers have been around for centuries. During the French Revolution in 1798, women wore red ribbons around their necks to pay homage to those who met their death at the guillotine. A few years later, a ribbon around the neck was the mark of prostitution. The choker also had a big heyday in the 1970s when Iggy Pop of The Stooges was defying gender norms and making punk music. Serving edgy looks, he wore a belt buckled around his neck like a dog collar, helping to propel the use of belts and oversized buckles in punk fashion. Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren’s legendary store, Sex, on London’s Kings Road introduced the leather collars of BDSM into mainstream youth culture. In a nod to the iconic punk landmark, Westwood recently released a gold choker welded with the letters “S-E-X” in gilded chin-supporting all capitals. No word better explains the source of the choker’s lasting power.
Hood By Air was a crucial brand to the emergence of unisex chokers among streetwear and high fashion. It emerged as a welcome jolt to what some might have deemed the staid New York fashion landscape in the early 2010s. The brainchild of Shayne Oliver and Raul Lopez, it sprung from the extended networks of New York party series GHE20G0TH1K. Taking cues from its nightlife origins, Tumblr culture, and a genderless conceptuality, Hood By Air presented many collections featuring masculine figures wearing chokers, butterfly clips, pacifiers and braces.
In the 2014 music video for Mamacita (ft. Rich Homie Quan and Young Thug), Travis Scott wore a bondage inspired facemask. This notable styling decision helped sparked the appropriation of leather and BDSM into trap music culture. Young Thug has also been a big advocate of gender fluid clothing. Through his partnership with Vfiles for the SS17 season, he wore an iconic pastel blue dress on the cover of No, My Name is Jeffery, which created a stir among old heads. Young Thug is also one of the only cis male presenting artists to rock a belly button ring. With the rise of painted nails, crop tops and unisex jewelry on men within the underground scene, it only makes sense that chokers are the perfect accessories right now.
Popular Montreal-based gothic jewelry retailer, Shop Biohazard, has been slinging tons of chokers to the underground since 2015. As seen in 2016 all over the malls and social media, plastic tattoo chokers started trending for girls as part of the 90’s throwback trend. This rapidly evolved into velour, lace, see-through, and leather chokers. Although chokers will always be a key piece of traditional women’s jewelry collections, they recently oversaturated the market and started downtrending.
During fashion superpower Louis Vuitton’s SS17 menswear show, Kim Jones showed luxurious looks paired with sleek pleather chokers. Right around that time, the choker trend hit full swing for men. English fashion retailer, Asos, dropped a line of mens chokers in January 2017, which marked the inclusion of this unisex trend into the mass market. Lots of well-known men’s lifestyle magazines, including GQ and Esquire, denounced the trend. This only fueled the desire of outsiders and members of the music scene to wear them.
Recently, many members of the underground have started repping chokers hardcore. Brooklyn-based musician and style icon Rex Reid released an EP called Choker Gang in February of 2017. d3ad6boy has been spotted wearing all types of chokers both for major luxury fashion brands and as a part of his signature look. In a couple photos, he even has them wrapped around his face. New Jerzey Devil almost always wears a choker. Artists everywhere are proclaiming themselves as rockstars, punkstars and popstars, so when vampire freak Myspace-emo revival meets DIY self-made luxury, the climate is right for unisex chokers.
Photo Credits
1) New Jerzey Devil backstage choker – Nina Matijacic
2) Iggy Pop 1970 Choker – Tom Copi/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
3) Hood By Air SS15 Runway Show – Kim Weston Arnold / Indigitalimages.com
4) Louis Vuitton SS17 Runway Show – Getty
5) d3ead6oy choker – @d3ad6oy