The Low-Key Way To Make Your Denim Less Basic

From punks to preps, politicians to protestors, Disney obsessives to Girl Scouts, pins and patches have long been used to make both political and sartorial statements. They stand as the easiest way to customize your own clothing in an age when establishing one's personal style can feel like a full-time job.

Last year, between the men's runways of Europe and Brooklyn-based Pintrill on Instagram, pins found their way back onto our outerwear. At Louis Vuitton's fall 2015 show, we saw jumbles of mismatched buttons and safety pins (think the kind you'd find in your granny's Royal Dansk tin but dipped in the LV monogram) looped together via shoelaces. At Kris Van Assche's Dior Homme, the pop-punk band badges we used to pin to our backpacks in high school saw a dandy man's upgrade with pressed flowers trapped inside.

And on the women's front, for fall 2016, Ashley Williams transformed the traditional hall patrol piece, adding her own "pierced ears" slogan for a dose of Debbie Harry-cool; deer-clad iterations of the embroidered patch injected a kitschy touch to denim jackets at Miu Miu; and Supreme's Playboy bunny pin became every Insta-kid's prestige purchase.

If you never managed to bag yourself one of these goodies way back when, fear not: Stores are currently decorated in them. Whether you wear them strewn across your jean jacket, set in your beret, or neatly on your pockets, here are some pieces you should definitely pin your hopes on.