
Thanks to him, elegant American women in the mid-20th century wore authentic regimental awards as jewelry. William R. Agnew, who served in the U.S. Army, was wandering through a Paris flea market one day in 1945, looking for an unusual gift for his fiancée. He found a Napoleonic belt buckle that she might appreciate as jewelry.
She was so delighted that Agnew decided that American women might also appreciate military trinkets. He ended up buying about 80 kilograms of military items, including uniform buttons, buckles, shoulder insignia, and the like, which he sent home and transformed into earrings, pins, bracelets, clips, and belt buckles.
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