For those game to do the pinning themselves, the lapel is an obvious spot. Starting in the mid-20th century, Ms. Fasel said, it become customary to wear a brooch on the left lapel. “You shake hands on the right, you wear your brooch on the left,” she said.
Another natural brooch spot, to which Ms. Giannini is partial, is the center of a collar. For a L’Officiel cover last year, the actress Anya Taylor-Joy wore a sizable Moussaieff pearl, diamond and ruby brooch directly under her chin. Lily James, the actress, has been spotted wearing a small Victorian star brooch from Moira Fine Jewellery at the collar center of a starched white blouse.
“But put them wherever you please,” Ms. Giannini said.
Chloe Beeney, a stylist in London, said, “You can place them at the waist, the shoulder, the neck, the bust line.” Brooches are also appearing on pockets, V-neck fronts and backs, cuffs, handbags, backpacks, hair and shoes.
Just keep in mind, Ms. Ettlinger Gross said, that “brooches draw attention to wherever we pin them.”
Hope in a Pin
The baubles have lately been gaining in popularity on e-commerce sites. Ms. Giannini attributes this “to millennials and Gen Zers moving away from fast fashion and seeking integrity as they upcycle and recycle.”
The most sought-after decade? For clients of Susan Caplan, a luxury vintage jewelry specialist in London, it’s the dress-for-success 1980s, when Armani, Versace, Lagerfeld and Lacroix had arrived. Chanel’s boldest pieces appeared. Van Cleef & Arpels designers moonlighted for Trifari, the costume jewelry company, while Monet, Trifari’s competitor, produced triple-gold-plated brooches for Yves Saint Laurent — “perfect for his sharp shoulders that were almost billboards,” Ms. Ettlinger Gross said.