Men's Jacket Lapel Pins - Thoughts on wearing a lapel pin - Men's style advice - Fashion tips

Men's Jacket Lapel Pins - Thoughts On Wearing a Lapel Pin - Men's Style Advice - Fashion Tips Hi! I'm Antonio Centeno, the founder of Real Men Real Style. Today, we're going to be talking about lapel pins. If you haven't already, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. By doing that, these videos will come right to you. If you like this video, if you find it useful, I would appreciate it if you would like it below. And last but not least, make sure to go visit and grab our free 47-page e-book over at Real Men Real Style. I'm also going to link you to my Facebook page down below, and the reason being is that's where this question came from. "So what is the consensus on lapel pins, namely small ones like aviator wings or other military breast insignias, not the normal size ones, but rather the small ones? Thank you." The gentleman that asked this, I looked a little bit over his profile. It looks like he was in the Navy. And for anyone that's not familiar, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Air Force, the Army, they've got different insignia that you can wear. My brother's in the Army, but man, they've got insignias for everything. They wear all this stuff on their uniforms. The Marine Corps, it was much more limited, but in the Marine Corps, the one thing that always stood out on the uniform is if you had jump wings or if you were an aviator, if you had gone through dive school. What else? Well, you can guys can help me there. I mean, there are certain things -- there are other ones that you could wear, but basically, you had these wings that you could wear. They were gold. They stuck out on a camouflage uniform. Now, you didn’t really wear them in the theater very often, or if you did, you were pretty careful about that, but it's one of those things that identified you with a group. In this case, this gentleman obviously earned his wings. I see what he's talking about. The ones that you wore right here were, I don't know, maybe three inches across on the wings and they had smaller ones that were more like an inch, very small. In that case, it's small. It's not going to really jump out. People will notice it and it's going to raise questions. It's a great chance and a great opportunity for you to explain and to talk with that person a little bit about you. In the United States and most of the countries around the world, having a little bit of military experience is a great, big bonus that just shows a lot about your character and who you are, but there are many other opportunities for men to wear pins or little things which have a little bit of a symbol. I see guys starting to put silk cuff links in there. I'm not a big fan of that because to me, it just looks a bit dandy. I would rather you go with something that has a bit of meaning to it. For me, the big thing there is meaning, so you don't want to try to wear one of the military pins I just talked about and not have been in the military because then you're going to get somebody really upset. Another place you see this, by the way, is on neckties. So neckties, it used to be that most of the ones you saw over in England and still today, they depend on what branch or what unit you're with in the military, what clubs you went to or were a part of, what schools you went to. All of those schools, they all had their own tie. You don't really see that so much in the United States in ties in general for the last 50 years. It had become much more flamboyant. The Italians have always made a great selection of ties that aren't really stuck to some type of meaning. Jumping back to lapel pins, I think they're great. One thing I think that they're abused though -- and I think Obama got hit on this -- is he wasn't wearing a US flag pin or something like that. I think that's a bunch of BS. If you've got to wear a pin to show you're patriotic or you feel like you have to wear one, then it's almost like the meaning has been perverted, in my opinion. It really is just a small chance for you to have a little conversation starter and to perhaps form a bond with somebody. If I was at a networking event, I may not ever have the chance to ask that guy, "Was he a naval aviator?" but if I can see that little pin, I know what that is. When I see those crossed anchors, I immediately know it's a naval aviator and he was a pilot. There are a lot of little details on those little pins that you know what they are. If you're a SWO, why not have a small pin for that? That's pretty cool. You can talk about that you were on this carrier or you were on this ship. It instantly forms a strong bond that you perhaps may not have even known about that person. All right. This has been Antonio Centeno with Real Men Real Style. I hope you enjoyed that. I'll see you in the next video. Bye-bye.