An Edgar Degas painting features ballerinas wearing black ribbons around the necks. [Photo/VCG]

But the choker is not all about sexual connotation. In paintings from the same time, the choker was also favored by ballerinas and the upper class, creating a vivid record of what was happening in the world of high fashion.

In Edgar Degas' ballerina paintings, for example, black chokers are a staple. And Alexandra, Princess of Wales, who loved to wear thick rows of pearls and velvet to cover a scar on her neck, simply made the choker – in luxury styles, of course - a fad among the high ranks.

Since then the choker experienced rises and falls on the fashion stage.

The first resurrection was in the early 1990s.

In a 1944 issue of Life magazine, the choker was described as a "dog collar", a fashion revived by young women.

Later in the period, grunge fashion was the street style norm, and the choker pretty much became an anti-establishment plaything.