Every week a different FADER staff member will pick a clothing item or accessory that he or she has lately been spending a lot of time with—or would like to—and write a little love letter to it. We would’ve done a column on who we’re dating but that seemed a little bit much. This week Veronica talks about her vintage choker necklace.
If my memory serves me correctly, I was first introduced to the choker necklace circa 1999—you know, the black and/or brightly colored plastic ‘tattoo’ chokers that every tween girl owned, or in my opinion, should have owned during that remarkable time. Despite being a cheap and dare I say, even tacky, piece of jewelry, I could afford them with my allowance and they had the kind of boldness that my 9-year-old accessory-deprived self was in complete support of and thereby donned regularly with genuine enthusiasm. While my 22-year-old self maintains an interest in bold jewelry, even occasionally venturing back to the noble days of the 1990s to sport the legendary item, I nevertheless have come to terms with the reality that it is in fact 2013, and as a grown up, my options for jewelry are no longer as limited.
When visiting my father in Virginia earlier this month, I stumbled across a vintage goods store in the small historic town where he lives. Situated below the Mason-Dixon line, these shops are known to stock unusually beautiful merchandise for reasonable, even cheap, prices. To the New York City vintage hound, like myself, spots like these are bona fide treasures. As I walked through the large space, briefly eyeing the stuffed grizzly bear mounted to the wall, I noticed a large silver choker, which I was told was from the 1920s. Putting it on, I was reminded just how spectacular the choker necklace can be, why it liked it in the first place when I was nine years old—the way it sits on your collarbones, the way it stretches the neck, the subtle elegance that comes with such a look. My new find is certainly not the faux tattoo choker of my youth, but I'm still as happy as a kid in a candy store.