Chokers: what they are and how to wear them

A choker is a short necklace — 36 to 41 cm — that sits close around the base of the neck and does not hang to the chest. At STRUGA the choker is not a velvet ribbon from the nineties but a line of architecture in dark silver: uncoated 925, cut to 40, 45 or 50 cm.

Updated 22 August 2026

The length scale is fixed by the trade: collar 12–14 in, choker 14–16 in, princess 17–19 in.

The form is about three and a half thousand years old — a gold choker from Egypt, ca. 1580–1458 BCE, sits in the Metropolitan Museum.

At STRUGA the choker is uncoated 925 silver — Living Silver: edges lighten with wear, recesses go to graphite.

Four chokers in the catalogue: 40, 45 and 50 cm, 11 to 110 g, $245 to $2,150 charged in rupiah, made to order in about two weeks.

The families that carry the form are SIGNATURE, BLADE and THORN, all inside the CODEX world.

The choker is unisex: length and fit are sized to the neck and shoulders, not to a gender.

• What a choker is
• Where the form comes from
• Choker, collar, chain
• How to choose the length
• The choker at STRUGA
• In short
• FAQ

What a choker is

A choker is a short necklace, roughly the length of the base of the neck: it sits close to the throat rather than hanging to the chest. The word comes from choke — it rides where the neck meets the shoulders and reads as a line along the throat, not as a pendant drop.

The length is not a matter of taste. The jewellery trade counts necklaces on a fixed scale, and Jewelers of America gives the choker 14 to 16 inches — 36 to 41 cm. Below it sits the collar at 12 to 14 inches, tight against the throat. Above it sits the princess at 17 to 19 inches, which falls past the collarbone. Three inches separate a form that holds the neck from one that hangs on the chest.

Because it sits short, a choker works differently from a long chain. It keeps a line close to the face, lifts the eye upward and frames the neck. A long chain is read across a room; a choker is read at conversation distance, and it moves with the throat rather than with the step. So with a choker the form always matters more than the length: it does not hang, it sits — and slack turns it into a different necklace entirely.

Where the form comes from

The choker is older than the trend for it by about three and a half thousand years. The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds a Choker of Gold Rings from Egypt, dated ca. 1580–1458 BCE and lifted by the museum’s own excavations in 1915–16: gold rings strung to sit at the base of the throat. A close ornament around the neck was worn across many cultures long before the twentieth century — as a mark, as a guard for the gesture, as ornament on the most vulnerable part of the body.

That last reading is why the choker is asked about more than most forms. It carries no single meaning of its own. Meanings were laid on it by period: Victorian mourning ribbon, punk defiance in metal and leather, a nineties uniform in black velvet. Each era read the throat differently and used the same short length to say it.

Today the choker reads as a form again rather than a retro quotation. A metal choker around the throat is architecture: a hard or dense line where the neck begins, sized to the body instead of echoing the neckline of clothing. That is the reading STRUGA works with — the choker as an object with its own geometry, not as a reference to the decade that made it popular.

Choker, collar, chain

Three forms sit on the neck, and they are told apart by where they land.

Length classes after Jewelers of America; centimetres converted from inches.

One warning about the word collar. It carries two senses, and they point in opposite directions. On the length scale above, a collar is the shortest necklace of all, worn tight at the middle of the neck. In the language of form, a statement collar is a wide piece lying flat on the collarbones — lower and broader than a choker, and read as a single object rather than a length. STRUGA uses the second sense: see the statement collar. When a shop lists a “collar”, check which of the two it means before you check the size.

How to choose the length

A choker is chosen by the neck, not by height or build. Run a tape around the base of the throat where the necklace will sit, then add two to four centimetres: less and it grips, more and it drops onto the collarbone and stops being a choker.

STRUGA cuts every neck form to the same three sizes, and the Thorn chain adds a fourth for wear over clothing.

Lengths are the finished measurement of the piece, clasp included.

Weight decides as much as length. Across the four pieces the range runs from 11 g on the lightest Thorn to 110 g on the largest Blade — a tenfold spread at the same 40 to 50 cm. A light chain follows the neck and is felt only when it moves. A heavy link sits where it is put and holds the throat as a shape. Both are chokers by length; they are different objects to wear.

The choker at STRUGA

STRUGA reads the choker as a line of architecture, not a ribbon. It is a dense silver form around the throat: a large link or a hard arc that sits firmly by its own weight rather than by a clasp. The silver is uncoated 925 — Living Silver: the edges lighten with wear, the recesses go to graphite.

Three families of the CODEX world carry the form. SIGNATURE holds the off-balance line, in an asymmetric build and in a version with a heart. BLADE is the large CNC link that lies along the throat as mass. THORN is the same sharp angle in a neck format, and the lightest of the three.

Prices run from $245 for the Thorn chain to $2,150 for the largest Blade Mini Links, and every piece is made to order in about two weeks. The international checkout is charged in Indonesian rupiah, so the dollar figure is a reference number rather than the sum you pay. It is unisex by the body: length and fit are sized to the neck and shoulders, not to a gender.

Other sections of the Atlas: Necklaces · Statement necklace · 925 silver · Living Silver · Rings · Earrings · Bracelets

In short