Why brooches are taking over the red carpet – as seen on Leonardo DiCaprio, Tilda Swinton and Michael B. Jordan

Long associated with tradition and occasion dressing, the brooch is experiencing a clear resurgence. Bold takes were spotted on Hollywood’s most notable men this past awards season, while the latest ready-to-wear shows were awash with statement iterations and inventive styling. What was once decorative now reads as deliberate, becoming the piece that steals the focus.
Brooches began life with a far more practical role. In the Bronze Age, fibulae (Latin for “clasps” or “pins”) were used to fasten garments, functioning much like a safety pin to hold cloth in place.
By the medieval period, they had developed into more complex forms, most notably the penannular brooches worn across Celtic and Viking cultures – open rings with a movable pin designed to secure heavy fabrics, their surfaces often worked with intricate patterns that nodded to rank, wealth and regional identity.

By the time European dress tipped into its most ornate phases – from the Baroque through to the Georgian era – the brooch had shifted more firmly into the role of ornament. Men pinned gold and diamond-set pieces to coats and hats, using them as small but unmistakable markers of status. Napoleon Bonaparte was among those to adopt the practice, incorporating brooch-like ornaments into his imperial wardrobe. One such piece, long thought lost after the Battle of Waterloo, resurfaced centuries later and sold for around US$4.4 million at auction in Geneva last year, underscoring just how much symbolic and material weight these accessories can carry.
As tailoring became more restrained over the course of the 19th century, the brooch slipped out of regular use, replaced by smaller, more discreet accessories that better suited the mood of the time. It resurfaced in the early 20th century, particularly during the art deco period, when diamond-set pieces once again found their place within formal dress. Around the same moment, Indian maharajas were reworking the idea on an altogether grander scale, wearing elaborate gem-set turban ornaments known as sarpech – distinct in form, yet driven by the same instinct to use jewellery as an expression of identity and power.

The impulse hasn’t disappeared – it’s simply resurfaced, now playing out across the red carpet. A sea of decorated jackets across the 2026 celebrity circuit quickly earned the accessory a new moniker: the “bro brooch”. Leading the charge, Pedro Pascal pinned a silk and feather Chanel brooch against a white tuxedo shirt on the 98th Academy Awards red carpet, introducing texture and a sense of softness to otherwise clean tailoring. That same night, Lionel Richie opted for an intricate diamond double-clip brooch from Tiffany & Co., while Jeremy Allen White chose a more minimalist art deco diamond bow bar for the Actor Awards (previously the SAG Awards) – both pieces having been sourced via The Back Vault, a New York-based platform specialising in signed estate and antique jewellery. Leonardo DiCaprio, meanwhile, was spotted at the Oscars wearing a vintage bee brooch, made in 1964 by Boucheron, reinforcing the pull towards archival pieces rich with history.
For some, the approach was more subversive. Michael B. Jordan placed a custom David Yurman high jewellery brooch at the back of his jacket collar on Oscars night – easy to miss at first glance, but entirely intentional – a move he carried through to the Vanity Fair after-party, where – fresh from winning Best Actor – he wore not one but three brooches across a sharply cut brown suit. It’s a direction he’s been building on: at the 2023 Academy Awards, he wore a pair of Tiffany & Co. Bird on a Rock brooches on his lapel – originally designed in the 1960s and now considered one of the most iconic jewellery designs of the 21st century.

Back on this year’s red carpet, Robert Pattinson dispensed with the bow tie altogether, fastening a diamond brooch at his neck. Adrien Brody, presenting, opted for a more overt diamond and sapphire piece by Elsa Jin. Across the pond at this year’s Baftas, Tilda Swinton offered a counterpoint in Chanel, wearing a strikingly elongated and minimalist diamond brooch.
On the fall/winter 2026 runways, the brooch was absorbed into the language of ready-to-wear rather than treated as an add-on. At Chanel, it appeared across knitwear, tailoring and dresses, sometimes classic and diamond-set, sometimes in exaggerated decorative silk blooms, always positioned close to the garment as a point of focus.
Ralph Lauren used it to anchor tweed and layered looks, reinforcing a more traditional sensibility, while Giorgio Armani introduced sculptural motifs – a lion head, a crab – set against otherwise clean lines. At Tory Burch, fish-shaped brooches and sardine pins nodded to vintage jewellery, shifting between playful and refined, while Ulla Johnson clipped them across shirt collars with a slightly offbeat precision. Moschino, meanwhile, pushed scale further, with oversized ribbon brooches that read like elevated, almost ironic takes on rosette award ribbons.

While the trend might not be seen in full force on the streets just yet, all that momentum from the red carpet and runways is driving a noticeable shift online. According to Pinterest Predicts 2026, based on a year’s worth of data, searches for “brooch aesthetic” are up 110 per cent, while “brooch for men suit” has risen by 90 per cent, alongside a wider increase in interest around heirloom jewellery and statement accessories.
Scroll through street style on Pinterest or the edges of Instagram, and the brooch keeps appearing. What isn’t consistent is its scale or styling. Oversized statement pieces sit slightly off-centre, while smaller, more delicate pins – think fine metal, vintage motifs or softly shimmering stones – are clustered in loose, layered groups. Elsewhere, silk rosettes, sculptural forms and high-shine finishes take the place of traditional jewellery altogether. A brooch might hold a jumper draped over the shoulders, secure a scarf, or catch the light against fabric bags. Increasingly, it’s placed with less rigidity – at the back of a collar or scattered across a look – moving with the outfit rather than sitting in a single, fixed position.
All of which suggests that interest is building ahead of wider adoption – a clear signal that the brooch is well and truly back.