Get In, We’re Brooch-Maxxing
How to Loewe your winter coat with help from grandma.
One use in the headline and I’m already done with the term “brooch-maxxing.” Apologies if you are too — it was just the most efficient way to convey that I’d like all of our winter coats to be drowned in a sea of vintage pins à la this 2023 Loewe wool coat. Forgive me, Jonathan Anderson, for I have sinned.
For all intents and purposes of this letter, I’m declaring “Loewe” a verb. We’ll be operating with the following definition:
Loewe (v.): to decorate with brooches and baubles galore, as inspired by the Loewe x Howl’s Moving Castle collection and your grandmother’s overflowing pin drawer.
In a years-long flurry of winter collaborations, Loewe released three collections inspired by Studio Ghibli films: My Neighbor Totoro in 2021, Spirited Away in 2022, and Howl’s Moving Castle in 2023. It’s been two years since Loewe x Howl’s dropped, and there’s one $10,000 coat I still can’t get off my mind.
In crises like this one (i.e. crushing on a coat that costs more than my first car), there’s only one place to turn — eBay. When the preview of this collection dropped, suddenly the plaid-wool-coat-sized hole in my closet became very obvious, and I scoured listings until my eyes bled to find the perfect one. This vintage LL Bean number remains one of my most worn items.
We’re firmly in an era of maxxing. A natural reaction to quiet luxury, minimalism, and sad beige trends of years prior, more is more in 2025 — even our accessories have accessories. Bag charm culture has become wholly inescapable, and it appears the market for accessory accessories has only just begun to take shape. Jessica DeFino describes this phenomenon as part of “Western society’s objectification of the human and humanization of the object.”
Brooch-ing your winter coat is a natural extension of charming your bag, coats are the purses of garments after all. They’re taken off when we relax into an environment, they serve to polish and accessorize the outfit that clings to our body, and they exist as a barrier between the world and our precious selves (self in the forms of both flesh and credit card).
Shoes fall into a similar category here, and sneaker charms are already making some headway in all the usual places (you can shop them on Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, and Free People).
predicts all things button, bauble, and charm will see even more popularity this year. Small accessories are a safe way to play with fashion, she explains, and charms are a low-stakes (and inexpensive) way to participate in trends.
But if you’re feeling the itch to personalize — the itch to Loewe your winter coat, especially — can I suggest giving your granny a call?
For those of us who spent childhood rifling through our grandmothers’ jewelry drawers and playing dress-up in their closets, a moth-bitten coat adorned with vintage bits and baubles feels like home. And for those of us lucky enough to have taken home our grandmothers’ brooches after they passed, it’s an excuse to excavate our treasures and give them new life.
In growing on our collections, it can be tempting to double our luck in one fell swoop, snapping up a vintage brooch lot or filling our cart to the brim with pins — but it won’t feel the same. It’s the time, effort, and intention of curation that gives those pieces such precious value.
Wait for it to speak to you. It doesn’t have to speak to you forever, but it should at least have a good opening line.
Brooch-hunting calls us to keep a constant watchful eye on shiny objects in our peripheral vision (like a stylish crow) lest an antique gem slip through our sight at a flea market or in granny’s dusty attic while cleaning it out over the holidays.
Aside from granny’s house, there’s no better place to rummage than eBay, the world’s foremost online flea market, and I have some exquisite spoils to share. Are any of them speaking to you?
Piece with links to other LL Bean coats like mine:
More on treasures from my grandparents’ closet:
And because it’s my birthday month, I’m giving away a 6-month paid subscription every day! Comment or restack with a note on any January letter to be entered into the pool ⋆⭒˚｡⋆
Yes! More treasures with meaning in these difficult times. I like to think of them as protective talismans.
Also...I just bought the bunny brooch. Thank you!
I love that coat! Although that is a LOT of brooches, and I would worry they would snag on something and would fall off. The one you found, Mac, is simply gorgeous - are you going to add some brooches??
I nearly always wear a brooch on a cloth coat (never on leather), and I like wearing them on my felted wool berets as well! I'm in for this!