Brooches Ruled Men's Fashion at the 2026 Oscars Red Carpet

At the 98th Academy Awards on March 15, brooches dominated the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood the way no accessory has in recent memory. Actor after actor took the stage adorned with lapel pins that, by multiple accounts, "blinded" viewers dazzling in the stage lights. New York Magazine cartoonist Jason Adam Katzenstein captured the moment in a sketch titled "One Brooch After Another," a direct play on Best Picture winner "One Battle After Another." The joke landed because the observation was undeniable.

The most staggering piece of the night belonged to Adrien Brody. The previous year's Best Actor winner wore an Elsa Jin creation titled "Ulysses," a massive silver construction set with a 20.05-carat sapphire and more than 1,200 diamonds totaling 125.84 carats, a piece so large it nearly consumed his entire shoulder. Best Actor winner Michael B. Jordan wore a custom David Yurman High Jewelry brooch positioned, unusually, on the back of his collar. Jordan apparently found the format difficult to quit: he wore three additional David Yurman High Jewelry brooches later that evening at the Vanity Fair Oscars After-Party at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Los Angeles-based stylist Chloe Takayanagi put two of her clients in brooches for the night. Sterling K. Brown wore a floral-shaped piece from New York jeweler Fred Leighton, while Kumail Nanjiani pinned a 1940s platinum and diamond brooch, curated by Michael Saidian of Unique Vintage & Estate Jewelry, to his all-black ensemble. That piece is the kind of find that makes a case for vintage over new: platinum construction from the 1940s carries a density and hand-finishing that modern costume jewelry rarely matches.

The brooch brigade extended well beyond those two. Kieran Culkin wore an 18K yellow gold piece by Sauvereign. Wagner Moura, a Best Actor nominee, chose a custom Andre Lasmar brooch inspired by the Dove of Peace. Joel Edgerton arrived in a Louis Vuitton Les Honneurs brooch set with sapphires and diamonds. Brazilian screenwriter Gabriel Domingues, nominated for Best Casting for "The Secret Agent," complemented a pinstripe suit with a caramel, black, and gold pin. Even newer talent joined in: Aidan Delbis, known for "Bugonia," wore an insect-shaped brooch on a black tuxedo, and Mason Thames draped a chandelier-like brooch from his lapel over a bow-tie ensemble.

The question worth asking, from a provenance and materials standpoint, is why now. London-based stylist Oriona Robb offered the most direct answer to Ireland's RTE: "we're tired of looking the same." Munchel's Fine Jewelry in Lakeland, Florida points to the brooch's particular virtues: "sustainable style, flexibility of wear and ability to draw out personal expression." That sustainability framing matters. A vintage brooch like Nanjiani's 1940s platinum piece carries no new-mining footprint. It is a finished object with a fixed carbon cost, worn again.

The historical weight of the brooch adds another layer. During the Victorian era, brooches functioned as mourning jewelry, their meaning encoded in materials and motifs rather than words. The late Queen Elizabeth II, described as perhaps the most visible modern brooch advocate, used her collection as a form of silent communication throughout her reign. As the research notes frame it, "as brooches became more elaborate, they also began to carry more meaning." That dynamic was visibly at play at the Dolby Theatre: source coverage used the phrase "accessories as activism" to describe the most pointed of the evening's lapel choices.

Whether the Oscars moment translates into sustained menswear adoption remains to be seen, but the concentration of named designers, including a 125-carat diamond piece and a custom High Jewelry commission from one of America's most prominent jewelers, suggests this was not a coincidence of individual taste. It was coordinated, intentional, and specific enough in its gemological ambition to read as a genuine inflection point for the accessory in men's formal dressing.