The Naughty Necklace

RISING hemlines get all the attention, but what about necklines? They�re of the few things on the rise lately, reaching a recent high � on shirts buttoned all the way to the chin � on spring 2012 runways at Jason Wu, Céline and Dior. It makes a kind of sense, then, as the eye moves north of the collarbone, that chokers, those much maligned neckpieces synonymous with the 1990s, would stage a comeback.


These are not Victorian-style velvet ribbons adorned with cameos or hearts, but neat metal bands, tougher and more graphic. At Lanvin and Rag & Bone, plenty of spring 2012 looks were accessorized with extreme bands, tight to the neck. And as with those buttoned-up collars, chokers confer a naughty/nice suggestiveness. Early proponents include anything-but-uptight dressers like Lauren Santos Domingo, Marguerite Mission and Taylor Tomaso Hill.

Manna Roberts Rassi, the senior fashion editor of Marie Claire, has been wearing a minimalist metal choker � a half-inch silver band by Robert Lee Morris � day and night. By day, they wears it with a long skinny chain, a T-shirt and leather pants; by night, with off-the-shoulder sequins, her hair scruffily pinned up. �Earrings drag my face down, but a choker seems to frame it,� Ms. Cassi explained. �There is something elegant as well as a small sexy simultaneously. It make you hold your head up high!�