A new jewellery trend has emerged of late, with men embracing the choker necklace, challenging traditional norms.

Chokers have been a staple in women’s jewellery boxes for decades, but over the past few seasons something has shifted. Men are wearing them too – and boy, are they wearing them well.

Heated Rivalry star Connor Storrie is a fan and wore a diamond-encrusted version at the Actor Awards (formerly the SAG Awards) back in March. Storrie’s platinum choker was from Tiffany & Co.’s Victoria range – known for its floral motif built from four gemstones set point to point – and featured clusters of marquise and round brilliant white diamonds. At this year’s Vanity Fair Oscar Party, he returned to the look with a Tiffany HardWear graduated link necklace in white gold with pavé diamonds, coordinated with Elsa Peretti’s Bean earrings and fistfuls of chunky rings.

Meanwhile, at the 2026 Grammys, long-time jewellery connoisseur Pharrell Williams gave the trend his stamp of approval, layering two diamond necklaces – one a rivière choker by New York jeweller Jacob & Co. – with diamond studs and two gargantuan diamond cocktail rings.

His own Tiffany Titan collection – a line of jewels the Louis Vuitton menswear designer created for Tiffany & Co., drawing on imagery of Poseidon and his trident – includes choker designs in yellow gold, rose gold and blackened titanium, some accented with freshwater or Tahitian pearls and pavé diamonds.

The choker has one of the more surprising histories of any piece of jewellery. Some of the earliest examples date to ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, where beaded and gold collars were worn for spiritual protection – the neck being one of the body’s most vulnerable points.

During the French Revolution, red ribbon chokers became a charged political symbol, worn in reference to those who had lost their heads to the guillotine. In the Victorian era, Alexandra of Denmark, Princess of Wales, who would later become queen consort of the United Kingdom, famously wore multi-strand pearl and diamond dog collar chokers to cover a scar on her neck, while black-velvet versions became part of mourning dress, worn by women of all classes following the death of Prince Albert in 1861. By the 1990s, the style was riding the wave of grunge and Y2K dressing, with the black-velvet choker becoming a defining accessory of the decade.