Nameplate Necklace

PRODUCT A thin gold necklace with a gaudy monogrammed nameplate

HOW IT STARTED Popular with teenage girls in the 1980s; Carrie of Sex and the City has helped revive the look

JUDGMENT CALL A humorous nod to your high school days. Back then it was a sign of pubescent narcissism; now (for a few months, anyway) it's retrochic

Sex and the City may be winding down its season, but at least one of the show's fashion statements is demonstrating staying power. When Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) this season started sporting a nameplate necklace, that signature of '80s teen style suddenly began appearing again on women of all ages.

Sex and the City stylist Patricia Field, who first put the necklace on Carrie, says she was inspired by customers in her downtown Manhattan clothing shop. "A large group of them are girls from the boroughs of New York City," says Field, "and it's a mainstay with them."

The necklaces were popular among high school girls 20 years ago, and then were embraced by late 1980s rap culture, along with diamond-studded rings, as a display of wealth. Because they are made to order, the necklaces are typically sold online (at sites like Girlshop.com and Personalizedboutique.com or in boutiques like Field's. The nameplates can be affixed to chains or hoop earrings as well as necklaces. And although they can cost anywhere from $85 to $500, compared with Carrie's latest obsession--a gold lightning-bolt necklace that sells for up to $1,500--they're a relative steal.

--By Kate Kelly