I'd plump for dropdown, if there really needs to be a new element. Not sure why options elements couldn't accept more attributes, they're easily ignored and don't affect the DOM tree. What's wrong with an icon attribute, for example, that points to an image?

I don't know, but looking at the timeline for other features to be implemented that virtually (if not literally) every web dev has cried out for since year dot like vertical align and grid, I'm putting my money on a new select element around 2035.