Patches, Badges, & Pins: 2016 TREND Alert For Girls & Boys!

Is this the best trend in the world or what? It might as well be the worst, you know, still wouldn’t make a fucking difference, would it? We’d still do it.

Good thing is this one’s for both teams, so you can steal it from your men. Or they from you.

When it comes to this massive 2016 trend – patches and badges pinned or sewn into clothes, mainly denim jackets, cutoffs, or jeans – I can’t help but wonder are we too old to do this trend if we’re past say… 30? How old is too old to do a trend? Does age still matter in fashion or not?

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The AGE-TREND tiny debate on brooches, badges, and patches.

The pins or brooches situation packed on any jacket is simple. Brooches were our grandmas’ definition of glam, so there’s no such thing as being too old for this one. Luckily. There’s however the sartorial challenge to make brooches look trendy, cool, and young. That’s very easily done though by pinning them to more youthful, funky clothes or designs, and by contrasting them with what they once stood for: the definition of grown-up woman who always wears a 2 piece suit, and matches her gloves to her shoes, her belt to her hat, with no hair outta of place, and the idea of femininity coming out of all the stupid rules she needs to respect, rather than the essential uniqueness that makes each woman a woman.

Thank God we’re slowly done with that, and the only thing we kept from the above is the damn brooch. Among other fashionable thangs of course.

Brooches were also pretty big in the 80s, and they were like the pin of glamour during any given time of day or night. My mom par example always had one on her blouse, jacket, or dress, and I remember I couldn’t wait to be all grown up so I’d drape myself in brooches. Big, glam, shiny, opulent brooches.

I never wore one in my life.

Brooches are the best combo of kitsch and glam if you ask me. I love that, and I kinda love how they look when they’re all crowded and piled on a leather jacket. And rest assured both men and women can rock these. And if you think otherwise, you’re not using your brain right.

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The patches and badges – now they’re a different story. They too stand for the same cool kitsch from late 80s, early 90s, but with a pop culture angle, not a glam one, when every single teen and pre-teen (girl or boy) had badges pinned to their everything. Back in the day in high school my backpack was packed with them, my denim jacket carried a few. All of them with some type of message or a yellow smiley face. The IRL emoji you know. They were cool. But silly.

You didn’t see my mom wearing them.

So then of course I wonder, in 2016, with badges and patches being back, do we do them if we’re past the age of 20? Is it not silly? Has fashion evolved so much, age no longer matters when you wear something?

Hmm. I honestly think we can wear almost anything today, it’s more a matter of *how we wear it, rather than *what we wear. Which of course only means – bring back the badges and patches on everything, right? Even if I am slightly over 30. Question mark.

Even so. Trust me. Every designer showed them in their SS2016 collections, each with their own shtick so it does fit every style, age, or mood.

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How To WEAR badges, patches, and brooches? 

When one of my friends told me a while back she longs to find those badges that were cool back in the day when we listened to Bon Jovi, and pack her denim jacket with them – I did give her one of my ‘you crazy?’ looks.

Like all things, I later changed my mind, only to have her react with an ‘I told you so’ look right back at me.

Badges and patches are pinned or sewn into clothes, which allows you to:

(1) DIY any piece of clothing you have, which is amazing. I never DIY, but this is pretty easy, so even I can bother on this one.

(2) spice up your clothes. Like, if you’re bored with a denim vest, or pair of jeans or denim cutoffs, you can just pin tons of badges or even sew patches onto them and they’ll feel new.

And (3) it’s a somewhat cool statement, without being too in your face. You can wear them crowded and piled on yourself, or you can just pin one. Whatever floats your boat.

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[OK, my idea of badges. Not for the faint hearted. Read with a glass of whiskey please. I will say this: I feel like a lot of the cool spoiled kids these days, who’ve all got squads and cash to spend follow this overly-badged look. Because of that, I would personally stay away form the mainstream banana, avocado, pineapple badge and go for more funky pieces, with a message that bothers a lot of people for example.

Why be like everyone else, when you can be a pain in the ass, you know? And this trend I feel is a great platform for saying a lot without speaking. Use badges or patches that read true uncomfortable messages, funny lines, captions of all sorts. Just look at what’s happening in the world. THAT is a statement. Not a fucking piled banana. Well, that too can be a statamnet for smth else.

Think of this trend like the text t-shirt trend. Some boys and girls out there disguised as men & women do have a soft spot for text tees that read incredibly deep messages like: I can’t blink without coffee, or bae this, bae that, or Monday sucks, or morning persons are so cool. That sort of shit. It is like seriously the best way to wear a t-shirt. You know, it’s so original, and ‘cool’ it’s insane. 

Yes, I am being fucking sarcastic. 

I really think the above is great for young fresh people, but if you’re past 28 and still talk in passé hashtags, sit the fuck down. Also, I feel like we’re wasting brilliant platforms here. Slap a fucking real message on that tee, dare to pin a badge that calls for a second stare. 

Or just forget about it. I might just be in warrior mood right now.]

Brooches, on the other hand are like the glamed posh versions of badges. I LOVE them, and as of lately I look at them as beautiful jewellery that can make any basic jacket look insane. I do however love them piled up in the most ridiculous opulence and major luxe. I feel like just one may look too pretentious, although it really doesn’t, not if you wear it for example pinned on a black shirt, paired with denim jeans.

But you know me, the more the merrier. No such thing as too much. Less is boring. Etcetera.

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Enough with the word-overflow. If you’re sold on this trend, click on image to shop.

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Need more inspo? Stop. I got your back.

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So, what will it be: too trendy, or I’ll do it?

xoxo