Page 106 - The Book For Men Spring/Summer 2024

FOR MANY YEARS, WE’VE KEPT A KEEN EYE ON THE WORLD OF men’s jewellery. It’s an exciting, fast-evolving category, and one that has entered a new era this past decade. But, while recent years have heralded an uptick in the popularity of rings, bracelets, and necklaces created specifically for men, the last few months have seen a specific piece stake its claim as the guest of honour in modern men’s jewellery boxes: the brooch.
The red carpets that roll out around awards season tend to offer a glimpse of the directions in which menswear might be heading. This year, the flashbulbs picked out one particularly bright, sparkling trend — and it was pinned to the lapels of men’s suits. For decades, brooches have been something solely worn by your grandmother, but
the getups of these A-listers suggest that they’re about to become a staple of men’s formal wear.
And yet, while it’s tempting to say that male-specific brooches came out of nowhere, there’s something that feels inherently familiar about these pieces of jewellery. For generations, men have been wearing the brooch’s humbler cousin, the pin. And with good reason, as they are versatile, highly underrated accessories. Politicians have long embraced the pin’s unassuming power, not only handing out buttons emblazoned with their campaign slogans, but also using smaller, often enamel designs to align themselves with certain ideologies, and flashing their patriotic sides with small, stylized flags. During the first half of the 20th century, high society club members would often offer their patrons small pins — badges of honour within their walls, but also doubling as a way to facilitate networking between members on the city streets outside.
By the late 1970s and early ’80s, pins took on a slightly different role, once again serving as a way to make a socio-political statement, but this time worn by countercultural figures. Think, for example, of Robert De Niro’s anti-heroic Travis Bickle in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. Punks, skaters, and students alike embraced the power of the pin in a more subversive way than their parents and grandparents had, and turned it from a tool of decorum and properness into one of protest.
Men’s lapels, then, have been adorned for years. Even brooches, which are currently enjoying their moment in the spotlight, started making an appearance pre-2024, albeit only accessorizing the outfits of more fashion-forward men. For instance, American pianist Liberace, with his ostentatious, flamboyant sense of style, was naturally something of a brooch connoisseur — but the last decade has seen celebrities including Timothée Chalamet, Jeremy Allen White, Brendan Fraser, and Michael B. Jordan adopt brooches in a more approachable, if still trendsetting way.
And many of those names have an affinity for a particular design: Tiffany & Co.’s iconic “Bird on a Rock,” created by French jeweller Jean Schlumberger in 1965. Though brooches were seen as an inherently feminine proposition at the time, the design quickly developed into a status symbol. Schlumberger was well-travelled, and had spent a considerable amount of time exploring botanical gardens and studying exotic flora and fauna. One creature that caught his eye was the yellow cockatoo, a bird known for its distinctive white plumage and yellow crest, and to which the Bird on a Rock bears a striking resemblance. Using one of Tiffany’s age-old casting methods, Schlumberger created the brooch by setting diamonds in seats opened using a pavé technique. He then “stood” this bird on a precious gemstone, which gave the brooch its simple but evocative name.
In 1976, in a testament to its popularity, the diamond-set bird became a hero piece in Schlumberger’s collection, showcased in Tiffany’s famous “Blue Book” catalogue. But it wasn’t until 1995 that Bird on a Rock became a true cultural icon. That year, the 128.54 carat Tiffany Yellow Diamond was re-mounted — for only the second time in history — as part of Bird on a Rock for a retrospective of Schlumberger’s work at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. The brooch became the most well-known setting for the famous diamond, and was displayed
throughout the ’90s, ’00s, and ’10s in Tiffany’s New York flagship, London’s Somerset House, and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., among other institutions.
It was around this time that early male adopters began pinning on their first decorative brooches. Chief among these initiators was Jay-Z — who is particularly fond of the Schlumberger design, and has worn it in a variety of gemstones — but also A$AP Ferg, Dwyane Wade, and Odell Beckham Jr. Others swiftly followed suit, with a startling number of these brooch-beguiled men opting for the Bird on a Rock design. But that’s no surprise, as much of the brooch’s appeal lies in the fact that each piece is unique. In a day and age where so many brands prioritize speed and production quantity over quality, Tiffany has respected Schlumberger’s original vision and treats every Bird on a Rock like a work of art. Each stone is hand-selected based on its beauty, shape, depth, and colour intensity. It is then cut in one of three styles — oval, cushion, or emerald — before being crafted by one of Tiffany’s artisans, and set in a slightly different, one-of-a-kind way.
So, if men are turning to brooches as a way of personalizing or individualizing their outfits, what better option than this wholly idiosyncratic piece? And, though it may be attracting a different crowd than when Schlumberger first created the piece 60 years ago, times have changed — and appreciating aesthetic beauty and peerless craftsmanship is no longer confined or curbed by gender norms. Bird on a Rock may not be the first brooch that you buy, or the design more conservative men may opt for, but think of it like the most limited-edition or complicated of watches. It’s scarce, it’s exceptionally well-made, and it makes an undeniable statement.
106 BFM / SS24 STYLE / IN FINE FEATHER