Over the past year, seemingly outdated objects have catapulted to the forefront of fashion. First, from the runway to the street to the red carpet, the opera glove was back. And now, another accessory belonging to the era of Audrey Hepburn has popped up everywhere: the brooch.
This is not your grandmother’s brooch, nor is it Queen Victoria’s. Louis Vuitton ushered in the trend with some noise, debuting musical instrument pins elegantly perched upon abundant knit scarves that wrapped once around models' necks and dangled down their backs. The pins, worn with cheeky nonchalance, made brooches feel, all of a sudden, modern and fresh.
The unexpected accessories gave a punch of elegance to run-way looks, especially from designers from whom we have come to expect something edgy, like Coperni and Nensi Dojaka. Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant of Coperni had a surrealist take on their brooches, creating a human hand that gathered and pinched the fabric of a sweater between its two fingers. Dojaka showed sheer shirts topped with floor-grazing wool coats and a simple pin in the lapel.
Others, like Gucci, took the more glam approach, while some fashion houses used the opportunity to showcase brooches on the few men that walked in their shows, as seen at Burberry and Versace. Given that great coats and tailoring were a primary focus of the recent collections, one can only assume that there will be plenty of coat-lapel real estate to devote to brooches this fall.
