All About Our: Contraceptive Pill Brooch

Board the Tatty Devine Time Machine with Co-Founder Rosie Wolfenden MBE as we head to the 1960s and delve into the inspiration behind our Contraceptive Pill Brooch:

Designing our Autumn/Winter 24 collection enabled us to zoom back in time to past moments that mattered, moments that changed lives for all and, more significantly in this design, changed women's lives. Throughout the process of handpicking these moments in time, cycles became a theme repeatedly: from the life of the blackberry, the lunar cycle to the inspiration behind our Contraceptive Pill Brooch, the menstrual cycle.

The Contraceptive Pill Brooch is a feminist statement about the right to choose, something we are eternally grateful for. This object d’art looks at just how transformative it has been for women/those who can conceive who for the first time in history could start to take control of how they wanted to live their lives, liberation, the power to control our bodies and the ability to plan when we want to have children. 

“The Contraceptive Pill changed lives through something as simple as the right to choose which we must never take for granted” - Harriet Vine

Prior to the pill being readily available, an unexpected pregnancy could dictate what happened next for many people, whether that’s leaving behind university plans, dream jobs or the choice to not have children. Providing an opportunity to take control of their body, it highlights the need for the right to choose. In Northern Ireland it was still illegal to have an abortion as recently as 2017 and in America there are huge discussions and protests around reproductive rights - choice is a safer way for women to live.

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE PILL

In the 50s, the groundbreaking work of Margaret Sanger, Katharine McCormick and Gregory Picus set out to change women’s lives forever. Discovering that generations of Mexican women had been eating the Barbasco root, a type of wild yam, as a form of contraception: a researcher named Russell Marker extracted progestin from the yam and combined it with oestrogen forming the first incarnation of the pill. 

Approved in the US in 1960 and the UK in 1961, the pill was originally only made available to married women at the time and it wasn’t until 1967 when the Family Planning act was passed that it was available to all. Passed alongside the Abortion Act which legalised terminations under certain conditions, these moments in history were happening at the height of the women’s movement a series of campaigns striving for gender equality. 

As with many medications, there is always risk involved and at first, this was quite high but over time as we learn more about the body, the pill we use today is statistically less dangerous than giving birth, according to PBS.  

DESIGN INSPIRATION

In 1964, an engineer David Wagner birthed the pill packet design we know after his wife was unable to remember whether she’d taken her pills. Aiming to keep track, they’d lay them out on a piece of paper with a calendar drawn on which often got knocked… can’t guess what they were up to! Inspired by this, he got to work at prototyping (and later patenting) an acrylic pill packet featuring household objects including a fastener off a child's toy. We chose to make ours a little more flashy with crystals delicately placed by hand!

Today, birth control is as controversial as ever with a high risk of reproductive rights going backwards. In 2023, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe Vs Wade which ended nationwide right to abortion. This means depending on where you live your right to choose became at risk of being lost: Georgia banned abortion after six weeks which is before most women know they are pregnant. These risks are real and voices still need to be heard.

Wear your limited edition, Contraceptive Pill Brooch with pride and we encourage you to check out the following charities and if you can support them, they need you:

https://eracoalition.org/

https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/equal-day-day-campaign-archive

https://equalitynow.org/

https://now.org/issues/

https://abortionfunds.org/

https://emilyslist.org/anti-racism-diversity-equity-inclusion/

https://www.cheerupluv.com/

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