How to Brooch the Subject

No, the heading does not contain a spelling error, but I wanted to broach the subject of brooches after one of my lovely readers emailed me for advice on choosing brooches.

Now they are an ideal decorative detail that you can wear in your portrait area if you have a short or wide neck that you don’t want to empasise with a necklace (check out this post on that topic), or if the neckline you’re wearing doesn’t support a necklace or scarf (or they just get in the way).

Wearing a cluster of 4 smaller brooches

They are also a brilliant way to create asymmetry in your outfit (should you feel you want that, or need to if you have asymmetrical features).

Brooches are a great addition to an accessory wardrobe. For many years they were rather “old lady” in an old-fashioned way, but they are making a resurgence of popularity and losing that old-fashioned vibe.

There are many ways to wear brooches (which I’ve shared here), but when you think about choosing them related to your personality style, what kinds of brooches should you choose?

What I’ve noticed is that there are a few common categories of brooch styles:

• Feminine – with lots of bling and delicate detail – these are the most common
• Quirky – almost from the ‘badges’ of my 1970s youth – fun and different
• Classic – the more old fashioned styles
• Personality pieces – the ones that reflect something that you love (such as my whippet brooches).

Whippet running brooch from Erstwilder

So if you’re dramatic it can be a bit tricky to find an overscale brooch, what to do instead?  Well why not cluster a 4-5 brooches which will give you the scale you want.

If you’re creative go for those more quirky styles.  You’ll often find them on Etsy (see below for a great selection of brooches and brooch sellers)

If you’re more relaxed, look for styles that are more simple, with less detail.

If you’re rebellious then look for those more unusual and unexpected shapes like the spiders, skulls and scorpions.

Where to Buy Brooches?

Craft markets

Art gallery shops

Amazon sellers

Etsy – My favorite place to find quirky, unusual and handmade items

Origami Brooch

50s Fashion Brooches

Silver Platypus Brooch

Wire butterfly brooch

Leaf brooch

Owl brooch

Bat brooch

Felt brooch