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Flower power pins are one of my favorite kinds of vintage costume collectibles. But it is only recently that I have become familiar enough with flower power pins to realize that they hold a mystery.

This mystery makes these collectibles unique amongst other types of 20th century costume jewelry and alternative fashion materials that I wrote about in a previous blog post.

Motivation My desire to become knowledgeable about these very popular flower power pins of the 1960s and 1970s led me to discover that there is a flower power mystery.

The Mystery Strange as it seems and in contrast to the genre of other alternative fashion materials, no identifying information about these very popular collectibles from the 1950s and 60s seems to exist. Therefore this leads me to a conclusion about them that relies on a few clues but mostly amounts to educated guesses.

Undocumented There is very little if anything written about either the history of flower power pins, their origins, where they were made, their manufacturers, or retailers.

Documented In fact, this is in contrast with other very popular vintage costume jewelry. It includes as well the alternative material accessories vintage lucite handbags explosion. Both are extremely well documented naming designers, manufacturers, and retailers.

History, Manufacturers, and Retailers

Clues to Identification As a matter of fact, in researching what seems like hundreds of brooches and pairs of earrings first on Pinterest, Google or Yahoo and then on Ebay or Etsy, I find only a clue or two. Within the volume of jewelry on display, there is some singularity of designs and then in contrast some diversity.

Singularity To be specific, many of the daisy petal designs differ either in color only or slightly in design if the design varies at all. Actually these hint at a singularity or similarity between brooch and earring set designs.

Diversity On the other hand, I find brooch and earring designs that are unrelated to other design sets. What this means is that some of this jewelry has no singular grouping or consistent design like the daisy petal layer designs do. In fact those sets seem like strangers to each other.

The Daisy Enamel Metal Brooch and Earrings

Observation of this jewelry indicates that the most popular theme builds upon the basic one layer ‘daisy’ pattern. From this observation, certain conclusions might be drawn.

The Daisy Pattern Design Theme Actually what I observe about and call the original daisy pattern design theme is that there is a variety of designs built upon just a simple one layer daisy pattern theme.

Variations From that design theme come stems, stems with leaves, no stems, pin backs and earring backs. In fact the greatest variety comes from the numbers of layers of daisy petals and whether or not they have holes in them.

One Layer Daisy Pins and Earrings To illustrate what I hypothesize above are examples of one-layer daisy pins and clip-on earrings below. They all have the same flower design pattern.

Different Colors Only the colors are different. In addition removal of the stem to create clip on earrings does not effect the basic design. Therefore they could all easily be mass produced by the same company.

Singular Designs of Layered Brooch and Earring Designs I want to continue describing the jewelry that appears to have order and singularity. To build upon the basic one-layer flower petal version, there can be two, three and even four layer brooches. Although they can become quite ornate, there is still an order to them as each layer is added. This is evident in the images below.

Does the Same Pattern Design Mean They Are From the Same Company

Is it possible that brooches and earrings that vary only minimally such as color or the design variations (description above) are from the same company? In addition, can one conclude that brooches and earrings that vary significantly in design and patterns are from different companies?

Diverse or Unique Designs In contrast to brooch and earring designs that have similarity to them, there are brooches that seem to be unique without any relatives so to speak. Unlike the jewelry that seems to have a growing number of layers as their major difference, this other jewelry is diverse or one of a kind.

Different Patterns and Templates Might Mean Different Companies

On the other hand, such one and two layer brooches are unique in both pattern and coloring. They do not have the continuum in design theme that the continuous layer jewelry described above displays.

Guess Again Where there is singularity in those, there is diversity in these other designs. Therefore the possibility might be that they are from different companies.

Still A Mystery

Why is there no identification of Flower Power Jewelry like fashion accessories from this period? In other words, who designed it as well as what company manufactured and sold it? Instead much literature does exist about the flower power era culturally. But that is as far as it goes.

Sort of a Hint Other vintage costume jewelry companies did offer credit on their products. In fact this is before during and after the Flower Power rage. But these other brands tend to be more pricey and decorative with rhinestone and other embellishments on them. For example, these companies include Marvella, Trifari, Sarah Coventry, Albert Weiss, Monet, Lisner, Coro, Napier, Lenora Dame, and Vendome.

A Possible Answer As I point out, since there is very little written about enamel metal brooches and earrings themselves with no identifying documentation at all, one has to surmise what the reason is for the anonymity of the Flower Power Jewelry. The closest thing to an answer lies in the ten other brands of vintage costume jewelry listed above that are from before, during, and after the Flower Power era because they are not definitively ‘flower Power’ jewelry.

Conclusion Thinking along the lines of the sheer volume of flower power pins produced (not one-of-a-kind), their minimal price (they were cheap), and their purpose did not warrant identifying them individually or artistically.

It is as if they were not created as ‘jewelry’ but rather more like flower ‘badges’ mass produced cheaply in Asia (?) with a socio-political more than artistic intention. This is my conclusion. In conversation with another collector, a seller and the owner of HeyViv!, she tends to concur with this conclusion. What do you think?

SOURCES AND RESOURCES

Morning Glory Jewelry|Flower Power 60s Enamel Jewelry
Flower Power: The 1960s Cultural Movement that Still Inspire Today
Andy Warhol’s Flower Power in Interview Magazine
The History of Enamel Pins
Collecting Vintage 1960’s Enamel Flower Power Jewelry
Flower Power Fashion: Embracing the Spirit of the 60s Hippie Movement
Ruby Lane: Vintage Begins Here
Flower Power: An Era of Movement and Empowerment
Flower Power: A Nostalgic Journey to the Peaceful Revolution of the 1960s
Floral and Plant Enamel Pins
Pansy v2 Floral Enamel Pin
Pinterest: Vintage Brooches
Vintage 1970s Enamel on Metal FLOWER POWER brooches / pins

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