Today was not my most inspired look. I wanted to wear my blue VV Boutique brooch and finally settled on a simple backdrop to let this pretty pin stand out.
Flower brooch $3 VV Boutique
Olive cardi $11 Joe
Navy tee from Reitmans circa 2008
Unfortunately, the look was a little plain. Once I tucked the kids in bed and abandoned my husband to iron his own shirts, I decided to do some style research and see if I could do better… I love the brooches from Anthropologie but can’t easily find styling examples. FYI (especially if you live in the US), I found this website for whole sale brooches! Who knew! But again, no styling tips. Most blog posts I came across were not current, but still interesting – there’s this one from Ask Style from 2010 and this nice video tutorial from Extra Petite (meaning I would be like a giantess next to this sweet girl) from a year ago. Here’s a comprehensive guide from Avalaya which I enjoy though I still think you have to be careful that you don’t look like you just plunked a pin on. Having said that, I also think the brooch (or pin, if you prefer a more phonetic term) is an under-valued under-utilized accessory. So go ahead and plunk it on! It will be your statement for the day so just enjoy it! Here are some of the other ways I styled it:
To close a cardi…
To embellish a necklace, like this pinkish faux-pearl strand from Accessorize…
or this copper-strand also from Accessorize…
To decorate a low side pony…
And no, I did not add a felt backing or anything. I just pinned ‘er in as if my hair were fabric.
On a skinny belt…
I also came across suggestions to use it on or near the buckle but I felt that looked too umbilical-y.
Overall I was pleased with the results of my style-experimentation and felt just taking it up a notch made a big difference!
I immediately was drawn to a couple of the looks but before I reveal my opinion, which is your favourite? Sure you can easily swap out the tee or the cardi for a whole new set of looks but I thought it was fun to take the same two plain pieces and show how they can give so many looks with one simple $3 brooch from VV Boutique!
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