What on earth is a choker, I hear you ask? Well, chokers were all the rage in the 1970s but despite the sinister sounding name, this was just a close fitting necklace worn high on the neck like a collar.
Funnily enough, this was not a new idea and does have macabre origins. The first references to chokers dates from 18th century France when the aristocratic lords and ladies who had escaped to London had a craze for wearing a thin, usually red coloured choker around their necks as a fashion statement about the guillotine. Sacre Bleu!
However, in the late 1970s, choker necklaces were very fashionable with women and it seemed that everyone had one. They were often a plain velvet band of around half an inch thickness that fitted tight to the neck and had a hook and eye fastening at the back. Sometimes they may have one stone or decoration – small silver heart pendants were popular, and this dangled over the throat.
You could get chokers in all materials, including leather or suede or made of knotted macramé and decorated with beads. You could also wrap a string of beads around your neck and wear them in a choker style.
Choker necklaces looked great with some of the flouncy dress and blouse styles on the 70s, also when teamed with a more ethnic type look such as cheesecloth and smocks. They were very flattering to wear because they managed to frame the face somehow by attracting attention to the neck which was quite a sexy look.
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