I enjoy wearing lapel pins and brooches.  When I was in my 20s, I started collecting antique filigree lapel pins, which were so inexpensive to buy in antique stores back then.

Through the years I have added a few hat pins, stickpins, and brooches, which every now and then I add to a sweater, coat, jacket, gloves, hat or purse.  To read more about my pin collection, click here.

A few months ago when I was in London and Ireland, I noticed that pins were in vogue again!  A Chanel dress, at Brown Thomas (Dublin’s version of Neiman Marcus), had a few large pins with one strangely adorning the tip of a boob on a pretty dress in a shop window.

Another Dublin store, Phoenix_V, had a dress in the window with a pin placed at the top of the front slit.

I am seeing more pins in catalogues and magazines.  So, let me just say that I am glad they are back!

My favorite way to wear small pins right now is to cluster three on my sweater or jacket lapel.  I just attended the local hospital fundraising gala with the theme Jewel of the Nile.  I gave a nod to the theme by wearing an Egyptian revival pin on the shoulder of my velvet jacket.  I had contemplated putting more than one on the front of my satin evening bag.

So grab your grandmother’s jewel box and start wearing those pins and brooches!

Bonus Information:  What is the difference between a pin and a brooch?  The best answer I found to that question was posted on August 28, 2010 on etsy.com by FrayedFuzzies:

“From my costuming experience, I’ve learned that a brooch is designed more to go at the center of a lady’s collar (where the top button would be on a button-up shirt), and they’re usually oval…think Victorian fro [for] reference, tons of women wore them! A pin is any shape and is usually worn on a lapel or on the chest area of a blouse.”

In my mind, brooches are larger and pins smaller, but I don’t really think that is a true definition.  Nor does the ornateness of the item indicate to which category it belongs.  If one refers to both definitions in a dictionary, it seems that these days the words are pretty much interchangeable.