You may have noticed a certain 90’s fashion trend making a major comeback in the recent months. Chokers are back and more widespread than ever before. Lorraine Zalta of Choked by a Thread made a splash in the fashion world when she introduced her high quality, hand made choker collections into the market. Since then, she's had some pretty serious success and exposure nationally as well as internationally.

It all started in December of 2015 when Lorraine was putting an outfit together for a friend's wedding. She was going to wear a gown and thought to herself, this would look amazing with a velvet choker. She got on her computer and typed in what she was looking for and to her surprise, nothing came up.

Zalta quickly texted her mother asking if she had anything velvet that Lorraine could cut and, to her luck, her mother had a velvet scarf she didn’t need. 

“I ran upstairs and grabbed the scarf, cut it into a thick piece and clipped it in the back with a safety pin,” Lorraine said, “I went to the wedding and a bunch of friends and their mothers were coming up to me asking me where I got it all through the night.”

Lorraine was shocked in disbelief. She replied to anyone who inquired about her hand made accessory that she would gladly make one for them as well. That night, she texted her sister to come up with a name for her new business venture. Once they thought of it, she knew it was the one: Choked by a Thread. Within a few short weeks she had a full functioning website up and running.

“All the sudden it blew up and everyone in my community was buying chokers,” explained Zalta of her almost immediate success, “later on bloggers would start to message me asking if I can send them chokers… they would take pictures of themselves wearing my chokers and tag me, that’s when things really took off!”

Lorraine started getting orders from people across the country and, to her surprise, she started receiving international orders as well. Lorraine primarily uses Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest to market her website to her large spread audience.

Zalta's Choked by a Thread design featured in Glamour magazine.

Choked by a Thread has also been featured in publications that reach readers across the globe. Vogue, Teen vogue, Vogue Australia, and Glamour magazine has all featured Zalta’s merchandise within their issues. On top of that,  Kim Kardashian West’s app, Galore, Refinery29, and the Ellen Degeneres show have all featured Choked By a Thread as THE choker to buy.

“It was such a crazy feeling knowing that other people wanted what I was designing,” expressed Zalta, “but with that came people who would copy my designs. Even well known designers would release chokers that looked exactly like mine.”

At first it would hurt her to see other companies benefiting from her original ideas, but now Lorraine has a more positive outlook. Whenever she see’s a choker that looks like one of her own, she takes it as a compliment. It keeps her determined to know that she is a true innovator in her field.

To learn more about Lorraine's designs and to purchase her chokers, visit Choked by a Thread's Instagram or website. 

Frieda Schweky

Frieda@sephardic.org

Frieda Schweky is Sephardic.Org's official community events reporter. For inquiries and to get involved with our site, please contact Frieda via email.