A lapel pin is a tiny pin that is worn on clothes, most often on the lapel of a jacket, although it may also be fastened to a purse or displayed on a piece of fabric. It is also sometimes referred to as an enamel pin. Lapel pins may be worn for decoration, or they can be used to show connection with a group or a cause that the wearer supports. The use of boutonnières was common practice prior to the rise of the popularity of lapel pins.
Pins for lapels are commonly used as visual representations of accomplishment and membership in a variety of organizations. Lapel pins produced by the organization are often collected by people who are neither members nor non-members of the group.
Achievement and membership may also be denoted with lapel pins by organizations such as corporations, businesses, and political parties. Pins for lapels are a typical component of employee recognition programs. These pins serve as a sign of an achievement and are given to employees as a reward for their efforts. These lapel pins convey a feeling of membership to an elite group of performers within the organization, just as the pins worn by members of fraternities and sororities do. Lapel pins are being given out to workers increasingly regularly by companies in an effort to enhance morale, productivity, and employee involvement in the workplace.
These were produced in large quantities in the former Soviet Union. In addition to pins depicting political officials and those sold as souvenirs at tourist attractions, there were other pins produced to commemorate a variety of political, cultural, and sporting events, as well as the technological accomplishments of the Soviet Union.
In recent years, enamel pins and trading has emerged as another well-liked activity among people. The spike in demand for pin designs that are based on well-known cartoon characters and themes like Disney, Betty Boop, and the Hard Rock Cafe has resulted in the development of pin trading events and other types of social activities. The trade of Disney pins is a good illustration of this phenomenon.
In the former Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, prominent lapel pins with portraits of Lenin and Mao Zedong, respectively, were worn by youth as well as Communist party members or people who felt like showing their official political credo. In the former Soviet Union, these pins were also worn by people who felt like showing their official political credo. In Czechoslovakia, non-conformist youth in the late 1960s and early 1970s wore Mao badges or pins as a joke and a method to upset the "normalisationist" reactionaries of the purged post-1968 Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. This occurred during the time period of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Initiates of the Guru Maharaj Ji tradition wore buttons depicting the guru's visage during the 1970s. These buttons ranged in size from relatively little to quite big. Lapel pins depicting the American flag are common attire for politicians in the United States, particularly following the terrorist events on September 11, 2001. By the year 2008, the flag pin had already established itself as "the fastest sartorial approach for a politician to express his or her patriotism." In the decade that followed, there was a noticeable drop in the practice.
Cloisonné, soft enamel, photo etched, screen printed, and 4-color printed pins are the five fundamental varieties of lapel pins that may be produced using the die struck production technique.
A sheet of iron, steel, aluminum, copper, or brass is used in all of the procedures, and the exterior form of the pin is then pressed out of that sheet. Cloisonne and soft enamel both need a stamping process in order to create the desired form and pattern. Click me to read...
