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Five centuries later, both Anne Boleyn and her “B” pendant pearl choker remain icons.
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An 18th century portrait of a pearl choker-clad Queen Charlotte, grandmother of Queen Victoria and the great-great-great-great grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II.
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After the death of her husband Prince Albert in 1861, Queen Victoria spent the rest of her life in mourning jewelry and, in turn, made them fashionable.
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To hide a scar from a childhood surgery, Queen Alexandra, photographed in 1880 when she was still the Princess of Wales, resorted to glittery chokers. Legions of women followed suit.
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The future Queen Alexandra, in another photograph from 1890.
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An 11-row pearl and diamond choker was among the many wedding gifts Queen Mary received upon her marriage to King George V. She wore the piece often while she was still Princess of Wales and also chose it for this 1914 portrait. By the end of WWI, however, she had upgraded to big diamond chokers.
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As queen, Mary was rarely, if ever, seen without her diamond-encrusted turtleneck, and especially her City of London choker, originally a wedding gift of two latticed diamond and pearl bracelets that could be combined into one necklace—which is how the queen wore it for the rest of her life.
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Among the Cambridge emeralds, Delhi Durbar jewels, and Cullinan diamonds that adorn Queen Mary in this photo, at the top of her neck sits her Art Deco emerald and diamond choker, which she commissioned from Garrard in 1921. Queen Elizabeth inherited the gem in 1953 but never wore it, instead gifting it as a lifetime loan to Princess Diana, who made fantastic use of it throughout her life.
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Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, was fond of pearl chokers. Her daughter, Princess Alexandra, and daughters-in-law, the current Duchess of Kent and Princess Michael of Kent, have followed in her example.
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Princess Alexandra, photographed by Slim Aarons in 1955.
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Like mother, like daughter: Princess Marina and Princess Alexandra in 1960.
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The Duchess of Kent pinned the black pearl brooch she inherited from mother-in-law Princess Marina as the centerpiece of a three-strand pearl choker.
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For her wedding to the Duke of Kent in 1978, the future Princess Michael of Kent wore a multi-strand pearl choker.
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Princess Anne in the early 1970s, wearing Queen Alexandra’s velvet and diamond Edwardian choker.
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And in another choker with history: the sapphire, diamond, and pearl choker that was among the suite of jewels Queen Mary had purchased from the estate of Russian Empress Marie Feodorovna.
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Princess Diana’s famous obsession with pearls—and pearl chokers—started early. Pictured here on the Royal Yacht during her honeymoon with Prince Charles in 1981, she wore a three-strand pearl choker featuring a flower-shaped, turquoise-studded clasp that was an 18th birthday gift from her parents. She later had the turquoise stones removed and replaced with more pearls.
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And in Italy, in the all-pearl version of her 18th birthday choker.
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And in another pearl choker style in 1984.
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One of very few chokers Queen Elizabeth has ever worn in public is this Japanese pearl necklace, which was commissioned from Garrard from a gift of cultured pearls she received from the Japanese government after a state visit to the country in 1975. Before the gem made its debut on the monarch in 1983, she loaned it to Princess Diana for an event the year before. Since then, the queen has loaned the diamond and pearl choker to Kate Middleton, who recently wore it for the funeral of Prince Philip.
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The Duchess of Kent in 1983.
Leena Kim is Town & Country’s Editor, covering the travel, jewelry, style, arts and culture, education, and weddings beats. She has no priors—she has been at the magazine for 11 years, having started her career at T&C as the assistant to the editor in chief.
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