An enamel pin and a lapel pin are the same thing: enamel describes the finish, the lapel is where it goes. It is a small decorative pin worn on the left lapel of a suit or blazer. If the lapel has a buttonhole, push the pin straight through it. If it does not, pin it through the fabric in the same position, roughly level with the top of your breast pocket, and fasten the clutch on the back.
1Wear it on the left
The left lapel is the convention, and it is where a boutonniere has always been worn. It is also the side that reads correctly to the person facing you. There is no situation in ordinary dress where a lapel pin belongs on the right.
2Find the buttonhole
Most tailored jackets carry a buttonhole on the left lapel, working or purely decorative. That hole is exactly what a lapel pin is for. Push the post straight through it from the front, and the pin sits where the jacket was designed to hold something.
3No buttonhole? Pin through the fabric
Put it where the buttonhole would have been: roughly level with the top of your breast pocket, and about a third of the way in from the outer edge of the lapel. Push the post through the outer layer of cloth only, so nothing shows on the inside of the jacket.
4Fasten the backing
Most pins use a butterfly clutch, the small pinched-wing fitting that slides down the post and grips it. Squeeze the wings, slide it on, then let go. A rubber backing grips harder and is worth swapping in for a heavy pin or a long day on your feet.
5Check the angle, not the lapel
The pin should sit upright relative to the ground, not square to the angled edge of the lapel. Those two are not the same, and a pin aligned to the lapel edge reads as tilted. Step back and look in a mirror before you leave.
6Wear one at a time
One pin is a detail. Two or more become a collection, and start competing with a pocket square or a tie bar for the same job. If you are already wearing both of those, leave the pin at home.
XSREZ carries officially licensed enamel pins across Star Wars, Disney, Marvel, DC Comics, Harry Potter and every major North American league, most of them under twenty dollars and packaged in their own presentation card.
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