I don't remember it. I don't remember brooches being highly popular back then. Women were wearing gold chains, hoop earrings, shell necklaces, and maybe some Mexican silver. I know that charm holder necklaces were huge at one point, and I want to say it was in the 80s.
I think you have to go back to the 40s and 50s to find a lot of brooches, including animal brooches. The lizard was a popular motif. I think that women just thought the designs were cute and fun.
IMO most younger working women would have considered them dowdy at that point. I know I did (I had one or two that I never wore.) My friends working on Wall St. wearing the power suits did. Perhaps elderly women were still wearing brooches. And yes, brooches are worn on the lapel or just above the breast. Some can serve as a pendant on a necklace or be detached to be worn as a brooch.
I have a nice collection of my mom's brooches. I've passed some of them down to my niece. She likes retro things.
Ouch! To me the 80s were a fashion disaster. Women were just starting to wear pantsuits, so for many of us, skirts were the order of the day. That meant you spent a minor fortune on pantyhose. In the morning I would put on my blouse with padded shoulders, a sweater with padded shoulders, and then my coat with padded shoulders. By the time I finished, I looked like a football player.
There was also the trend of small-print wrap rayon dresses (which were rather nice, Diane Von Furstenberg was known for them,) that were unfortunately paired with white or light pastel pantyhose, and often, patent leather shoes. Very girly.
Also you had lots of Laura Ashley and a brand called Gunne Sax that borrowed heavily from prairie, Edwardian, and Victorian looks.
And don't get me started on the big hair! That was truly awful. lol
Insects, frogs, crabs, snakes, predatory cats--things that no sane woman would go near in real life, make it out of gold and gems, and they'll happily wear it. My grandmother had a spider brooch in spite of the fact that they was terrified of the real things.