The red carpet is being used increasingly as a platform for protest \u2013 and one accessory in particular has become key: the pin badge.<\/p>\n
At Sunday night\u2019s Grammy awards<\/a>, stars including Hailey and Justin Bieber and Billie Eilish wore black and white pins that read \u201cICE out\u201d, a condemnation of the recent actions of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.<\/p>\n It follows the wearing of \u201cBe Good\u201d pins by celebrities such as Mark Ruffalo and Natasha Lyonne at last month\u2019s Golden Globes, a tribute to Renee Good<\/a>, a 37-year-old unarmed US citizen<\/a> who was shot dead by an ICE agent on 7 January, and Keith Porter Jr<\/a>, a Los Angeles citizen killed by an off-duty ICE officer on New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n Justin and Hailey Bieber wear \u2018ICE out\u2019 pins on the red carpet at the Grammys. Photograph: Mario Anzuoni\/Reuters<\/p>\n The pins are part of a campaign backed by organisations such as the American Civil Liberties Union. In an interview, Nelini Stamp, one of the organisers, said: \u201cWe need every part of civil society to speak up. We need our artists. We need our entertainers. We need the folks who reflect society.\u201d<\/p>\n TikTok is awash with tutorials on how to make button badges, while sellers on marketplaces such as Etsy have been quick to offer their own takes. The pins aren\u2019t just restricted to US-based wearers. In the past week, the UK seller Rad Badges<\/a> has sold more than 30 packets of a set of four pins that read \u201cAbolish ICE\u201d and \u201cNobody is illegal\u201d.<\/p>\n Komina Guevara, a beadwork artist<\/a> based in Missouri who makes \u201cICE out\u201d and \u201cFCK ICE\u201d charms that can be attached to a pin, worn on a chain or on a phone strap, describes the act of wearing one as \u201ca small, intimate protest. They offer a confidence that a lot of people are afraid of.\u201d<\/p>\n T-shirts rebuking ICE are also gaining traction. Just hours after Bad Bunny collected his Grammy for album of the year, tees featuring text from his speech \u2013 \u201cICE out. We\u2019re not savage, we\u2019re not animals, we\u2019re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans\u201d \u2013 appeared online. The Puerto Rican pop star and fans are expected to use his half-time Super Bowl performance<\/a> on Sunday to amplify his message.<\/p>\n The term ICE is ripe for riffing, with tops and sweaters featuring graphics of cocktails captioned with \u201cI like my ICE crushed\u201d and \u201cRemember ICE melts\u201d. Other slogans include \u201cStay salty, melt ICE\u201d and \u201cABCDEFUCKICE\u201d, while some feature a graphic of a single giant melting ice cube.<\/p>\n Last week during Copenhagen fashion week, Ella Emhoff, an artist, model and the stepdaughter of the former US vice-president Kamala Harris, wore a T-shirt from the online brand Chnge, featuring an illustration of a polar bear<\/a> standing on a glacier with the slogan \u201cThe wrong ICE is melting\u201d.<\/p>\n Mark Ruffalo wears a \u2018Be Good\u2019 badge at the Golden Globes in California. Photograph: JC Olivera\/2026GG\/Penske Media\/Getty<\/p>\n In a post on Instagram, Emhoff wrote: \u201cFuck ice and anyone who thinks anything they are doing is OK,\u201d adding a list of immigrant resource centres.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, nail artists are championing anti-ICE manicures<\/a> that include tiny nail art designs such as ice cubes and lettering such as \u201cFCK ICE\u201d.<\/p>\n The trend taps into a wider \u201ccraftivism\u201d movement. Donald Trump may have updated his signature red baseball cap to read \u201cAmerica is back!\u201d in a shouty white font, but it\u2019s a knitted, red tasseled hat opposing ICE that is dominating the attention of \u201crage knitters<\/a>\u201d. Known as \u201cMelt the ICE\u201d hats, they are inspired by the red nisselue (woolen caps) worn in the 1940s by Norwegians to signify their resistance to Nazi occupiers. Needle and Skein, a yarn store in Minneapolis, has so far raised more than $650,000 (\u00a3478,000) for local immigrant organisations by selling the pattern and through protest stitch-alongs.<\/p>\n