The Brooch Approach

Madeleine Albright has been on a bit of a press tour lately, and not for some sort of epic auto biography, but for an exhibit and book about her extensive pin collection. At first I was like, "Seriously? The first woman to be Secretary of State is on NPR to talk about her jewelry?", but she quickly won me over and honestly, if anyone has the right to kick back and talk about their brooch collection for a bit its this woman. Not to mention the fact that every pin happens to be gorgeous and have a great story behind it.



This is the pin that started it all. Saddam Hussein referred to her as "a serpent" so from then on she wore this pin when meeting with Iraq.


Albright wore this pin in Moscow when meeting with Putin. The See No Evil... theme was in reference to the civil rights violations being committed in Chechnya.


Albright always had a difficult time clearing airport security with this one since the sword is removable and therefore constituted a weapon.


She wore these turtles to signify the slow progress in the Middle East.


In 1999 it was discovered that the Russians had bugged the US State Department. In her next meeting with Russia, Albright pinned this bug to her shoulder. I can imagine her job dealt with a lot of not mentioning obvious awkward moments and the pins seemed to come in handy at those times.


I just thought this one was pretty. It was gift from Bill Richardson during his time as an ambassador to the UN.

This high heel pin was given to her by her Chief of Staff in regards to Albright's comment on being Warren Christopher's succesor " I only hope my heels can fill his shoes".


This was from an assortment of zebras for meeting with Nelson Mandela. This particular zebra layed over your shoulder.



Albright has said that she likes to wear this pin during meetings because since one clock faces up and one is normal both the wearer and the person she's with can tell what time it is and check to see when the meeting is over.


I love this one. This is "the broken glass ceiling" that Albright shattered when she became the highest ranking female official after Bill Clinton appointed her Secretary Of State.



Wasps were worn on days she wanted to "do a little stinging and deliver a tough message".



She wore this Foxy Lady pin when she wanted to "have fun and do a little flirting along the way". It was given to her to commemorate a trip to South Korea where a foreign minister made what he thought was an off the record comment to a reporter that he enjoyed her visits and hugging her because of her "firm breasts". Albright said "Well I have to have something to put these pins on". They only shook hands after that.

More cool pins here : I'd kill for that one from Yemen.... And the missile one is awesome.