Treasures Held Up to the Light

Photo by Drop the Label Movement on Unsplash

It’s that time of year again; time to wash The Jacket. Which should have illuminated capital letters.

The Jacket is a plain jean jacket…adorned with somewhere around a hundred pins and buttons. In normal years I wear it at winter SF cons (it’s a bit too warm in the summer). Fully equipped, it weighs in at about eight pounds. I have had people joke about it stopping a bullet. Washing it involves taking off all of those pins and buttons (and the buttons are extra secured with earring backs). Then putting them all back on. I don’t do this performance that often, but then I don’t wear it that much.

I collected pins as a teenager, stopped, then started up again in my late thirties. The curated part of the collection includes cynical statements, expressions of my political views, multiple pride pins, Star Trek pins, pins advertising my friends books, cons I go to, numerous other fandom pins and either too many or not enough Doctor Who pins and buttons, depending on who you ask.

It attracts attention.

It’s my treasures on display.

That One Pin

So, a few years ago, I was at a convention wearing The Jacket (which, by the way, gets photo requests much like cosplay). I catch people looking at my chest and then going “No, I was reading the pins.” I believe them.