What are torque necklaces, and how are celebrities reviving them? Peep looks by Dakota Johnson, Elle Fanning, Cynthia Erivo and Mikey Madison, and pieces from Gucci, Hermès, Cartier and Tiffany & Co.

For her performance at the Grammy Awards in February, Cynthia Erivo wore sparkling diamonds from avant-garde French jeweller Messika, but what was especially noticeable was the stunning diamond torque around her neck from its high jewellery collection. The name, also spelled torc, is derived from the Latin torquere meaning “to twist”, as the metal was often twisted for strength to help it hold its shape. It resembles a choker, but is a style of necklace that dates from antiquity, before humans had learned how to make chains, its rigid shape easily cast in metals ranging from humble iron to precious gold. It’s also a style of necklace that is grabbing attention once more. Elle Fanning wore an impressive yellow gold Panthère de Cartier torque, slightly open at the front and with a hinge at the back, for her red carpet appearance at January’s Golden Globes. Cartier has form here of course, its famous Juste un Clou necklace also being a torque. Two more famous names turning to torques are Anora actress and Oscar winner Mikey Madison, who in October wore a rigid T by Tiffany choker at the Academy Museum Gala, and Dakota Johnson, who last year donned a Belperron piece set with a 65-carat diamond for an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The torque is strikingly minimalist compared to the recent fashion for a mess of chains piled around the neck. “It is the purity of form that makes them such a timeless classic – ancient in feel and yet so contemporary,” says Demetra Lalaounis, director of international operations at Greek brand Lalaounis and daughter of its founder Ilias Lalaounis. The brand’s Neolithic, Cycladic, Classical and Hellenistic collections feature a variety of 22k yellow gold torques based on designs from those eras, while the Persepolis collection has other pieces inspired by that city, the capital of the Achaemenid Empire (550-330BC). Designs with animal heads, she points out, “are inspired by classical and Hellenistic art, with the workmanship on these usually more intricate, including filigree wire and granulation”. The Hellenistic period was from 323BC to 30BC and included the fall of Alexander the Great’s empire. However, torques date back further, appearing in Europe in the Iron Age from around the 8th century BC, and showing up in cultures like the Viking and Celtic. On the other side of the Mediterranean from Lalaounis, Azza Fahmy regularly reinterprets the torque, which appeared in ancient Egyptian culture too. The jeweller uses gold or sterling silver and intricately decorates the collars with twisted wirework in the form of calligraphy or flowers. “They’ve always been an integral part of our collection,” says the Egyptian brand’s head designer Amina Ghali, Fahmy’s daughter. Torques have been turning up on the catwalk in summer collections from Hermès and Gucci too, with the latter drawing inspiration from Tom Ford’s 1990s bamboo-handled handbags. Among high jewellery houses, Messika and Repossi from Paris, and Tabayer from New York, have ultra-modern versions, with Repossi’s Serti sur Vide torques using titanium cable for lightness and flexibility. Tabayer has a particularly bold piece in its made-to-order Oera collection featuring gold, carved jasper, brown diamonds and a large Madeira citrine the colour of cognac. Then there are those who bring history and contemporary design together, like London-based Glenn Spiro, who has suspended amber beads and gold Baoulé decorations from West Africa from slender gold torques. “I’m often inspired by specific diamonds, and whenever I find one that’s truly stunning, the torque is the first design that comes to mind,” says London diamond specialist Jessica McCormack. “It’s the perfect piece to highlight the beauty and quality of a stone.” Not surprisingly then, her designs often include whopping 10-carat diamonds or else a large pearl. That includes pieces in her new collection, called Rush Hour, which adds an extra swerve or two, with the centrepiece stone balanced on an asymmetric curve. “It is the perfect fit for the minimalist aesthetic that is popular right now,” McCormack says, “and strikes the balance between being both a statement and elegantly simplistic.” The design also embodies her Day Diamonds concept of wearable styles for the female executive – clearly a successful one when you consider the size of the diamonds – which McCormack believes look cool whether paired with a power suit, or jeans and a T-shirt. They are “designed to effortlessly handle the drama inside and out of the nine to five”, she says. More minimalism comes from Pomellato’s sleek diamond choker, which again opens at the back rather than the front, and is flexible enough to twist on. Similarly supple is Eva Fehren’s Axis gold collar (two overlapping gold halos), while fellow American jeweller Shahla Karimi finishes her back-opening torque with a pear-shaped lab-grown diamond centre stone. “I think there might be a little fatigue with the layered necklace look, and we’re seeing a shift towards singular, sculptural pieces that have presence without excess,” says UK-based jeweller Laura Vann, who like Alexis Bittar and Tilly Sveaas, offers torques in vermeil. Vann’s, with their carré-cut gemstones, have a simple hook fastening, as an alternative to the adjustable chains of Messika and others, or a hinge mechanism. Drawn to the style by its strong clean silhouette, she says, “I wanted to use a slim wire to create a sense of soft elegance, while keeping it lightweight and wearable.” It is this wearability that is the torque’s greatest asset. Around for millennia, it remains easily the most effortless design to slip around your neck.