ENAMEL PINS

A lapel pin is a small enamel badge with a post and a clutch on the back, worn on a jacket, a bag, a hat or a sash. Enamel pins are the common kind: a stamped metal outline with colored enamel filled into the recesses and polished flat.

They are the cheapest form of self expression a shop sells. A pin costs less than lunch, goes on and comes off in seconds, and says something on a denim jacket that a slogan shirt would say far too loudly.

The part worth knowing is the back. Most pins ship with a rubber clutch, and rubber clutches are the reason people lose pins. They stretch, they warm up against your body, and they work loose in a crowd. Swapping to locking metal backs costs very little and is the single thing that stops a favorite pin disappearing halfway through a night out.

A small category, and it sorts by what the pin says rather than how it is made.

• Slogan pins: the ones that do the talking. Unicorn slogans in both directions, plus phrasing that reads as funny on a jacket and blunt in conversation.
• Toy pins: dildos, butt plugs, wands and handcuffs rendered small and shiny. From across a room it reads as decoration, which is the joke.
• Pride pins: flags and symbols, worn as quietly or as loudly as you want them read. More of the same in Born This Way.
• Cannabis pins: leaf designs for jackets and bags, alongside the rest of the stoner gifts.