How to wear brooches

In general, brooches will be your jewellery, so use them sparingly with other items, unless they are on your outerwear, then you can go on. Here, three Alexis Bittar brooches form a cluster that adds texture and colour to an outfit in basic business colours.

Brooches figured nowhere in most women's jewellery boxes until Michelle Obama made them modern for them. I am myself a great fan of vintage brooches and Mawi's.
There is a brooch (or group of brooches) for everybody:

Choose your style

• Figural: animals (either real or mythological: dragons, griffins...) insects, flowers.
• Abstract: perhaps inspired in specific moments in Art history: Art Deco, Egyptian revival, Art Nouveau...
• Costume jewellery, modern or vintage. There are the classics of the past: Kramer, Vendôme, Trifari, Lisner, Kenneth Jay Lane, Butler and Wilson, Schreiner, Coro, Stanley Hagler, Miriam Haskell... And the classics of the future: Alexis Bittar, Mawi, Cilea, Erickson Beamon, Anton Heunis, ... plus the design houses of the past and present.

Styling tips for brooches:

What to wear:

• An oversized brooch that may take center stage of your outfit if it is in a contrasting colour, or just add texture, if it's not (the brooch can relate to any of the colours in the garment, if it's a print).
• A group of small brooches, in an odd number. One can be bigger that the others.
• A potpourri of badges or pins with a common topic: political affiliation, patriotic, thematic (women's suffrage, cats...). To see and example of someone using brooches to send messages, you can read Madeleine Albright's pins.

Where to wear them:

• On the lapel of your coat or cardigan (careful with creating holes there!).
• Your neckline, at a corner or angle, if your neckline has them (the peak of a V-neck, or the corners of a square neckline).
• Pinned on your necklace.
• On your scarf.
• On your hat or beret.
• On your waist, over a sash or ribbon, or at a strategic corner where draping or other details gather.

Always look at your whole body in the mirror to see the whole effect.
You can follow the label Brooches to get more styling tips, learn about places to find great brooches and more.