Madeleine Albright to Saddam: Read My Pin!

While one wouldn't necessarily have guessed, Madeleine Albright does have a fashion legacy: her pins. The former secretary of state has penned a book called "Read My Pins," that documents the pins she wore on various official missions of state -- pins that often held symbolic meaning. Frankly, it's given us a whole new view of Ms. Albright, showing her to be a wonderfully classy, tongue-in-cheek kind of dame. And it turns out she bought most of her favorite pins while she was in New York!

When she visited Saddam Hussein, Albright wore a brooch with an elaborate serpent hanging from a branch with a diamond in its mouth -- and apparently Hussein and his cabinet understood her implicit message. That's when Albright apparently decided to continue the trend -- from wearing an ornate zebra pin to meet Nelson Mandela to the "Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, See No Evil" trio she wore when visiting Russian president Vladimir Putin when he was accused of ignoring human rights violations in Chechnya.

Best of all, you can see the pins for yourself at the Museum of Arts and Design now through January 31, when the collection will go on tour.

Museum of Arts and Design: 2 Columbus Circle, Tuesday - Sunday 11-6; Thursday 11-9

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