Tiny shiny discs sewn onto clothes and costumes to make them sparkle and shimmer.
From French 'sequin,' from Italian 'zecchino' (a gold coin), from Turkish 'çekme.' The meaning shifted from coins to decorative discs that imitate coin sparkle.
Sequins were originally inspired by actual gold coins—designers would sew coins onto garments for royalty, and when that became expensive, they invented shiny discs that caught light the same way, creating fashion's most dazzling shortcut.
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