Make Way Because the Brooch Is Fully Back in Fashion, Baby

By Karen Dybis | December 28, 2025

File this under “We agree to disagree,” fashion world. In early 2025, Vogue posed this question in its advice column about accessories: How Do I Wear a Brooch Without Looking Like My Grandmother?

Well, Virginia-based jewelry designer Emily Warden says she is very happy to look like her fabulous brooch-wearing grandmothers, thank you very much. To honor those two divas—Sandy and Carolyn—Warden recently debuted her first brooch collection as part of the Emily Warden Designs 2025 holiday capsule.

“Both of my grandmothers wore dazzling brooches every holiday,” Warden says from her Richmond-based studio. “I remember playing with them, especially the pearl ones.… They’re wearable sculptures.”

Brooch Emily Warden — *The Topaz Halo Convertible Brooch ($2,450) uses a 10.5 ct. golden topaz surrounded by a halo of lab-grown diamonds, freshwater pearls, and natural green sapphires.*

The limited-edition 12-brooch collection pays homage to those grandmotherly brooches but with Warden’s more contemporary eye for what her clients want and smart design, like her Topaz Halo Convertible Brooch, the hero of the collection.

The Topaz Halo piece features a 10.5 carat golden topaz surrounded by a halo of diamonds, freshwater pearls, and green sapphires. It includes a pearl stick pin and clutch to wear it as a brooch. Alternatively, the piece can be worn on a chain as a pendant.

The Twin Moths Collar Brooch is another collection standout, pairing two 14k yellow gold moth silhouettes with a draped three-stand freshwater pearl chain hand-strung on white silk.

Brooches can be an overlooked accessory, but that clearly has changed in recent years as more fashion designers put them on hats, scarves, coats, suit lapels, and waistbands. Warden says she started thinking about a brooch collection about two years ago, and the recent spate of news articles about the trend made her step up and get it done.

Emily Warden gemstone brooch — *The Cocktail Brooch ($1.095) uses American-mined green quartz, white quartz, morganite, and lab-grown white sapphire.*

She wanted her brooches to be vintage-inspired but carry the knowledge she has as a jewelry designer in 2025. Warden also wanted her designs to be unisex so any of her clients or their spouses could wear them. She can picture one of her brooches in a bride’s hair just as easily as on the groom’s tuxedo lapel.

As this was her first pass on a brooch collection, it had to make a mark, Warden says. She hopes that all this brooch love continues long into 2026 and beyond so she can start anther collection soon.

The 2025 holiday capsule collection also includes tennis bracelets, colorful cocktail-style jewelry and mixed-gemstone designs, including a Mixed Cut Rainbow Pendant, a Mixed Cut Rainbow Signet Ring, and her new Gemstone Spinner Charms, each with six hand-set gemstones in a rotating 14k gold frame.

“Color brings so much personality to a piece. This collection balances elegance with joy, which feels perfect for the holidays,” Warden says.

And don’t worry—Vogue redeemed itself through some brooch love later in the year, and many designer runways also made the case. The brooch return is real and it is fantastic, as they say.

Top: The Twin Moths Collar Brooch ($1,350) uses the brand’s signature 14k yellow gold moth charm silhouette connected by a three-strand pearl chain. (Photos courtesy of Emily Warden Designs)