In heraldry stag antlers, often called "attires," are compact but potent symbols of strength, sovereignty, and regenerative power. They distill the stag's broader qualities into a focus on defense and status, because antlers are both the animal's ornaments and its weapons. Attires may therefore imply noble bearing, territorial authority, and a capacity to protect kin or estate. When shown alone as a badge or crest they read as a concentrated claim to leadership and endurance, and when they appear paired with a stag they amplify dignity, watchfulness, and mature authority.

The attires carry a wide range of social and occupational associations. They commonly indicate forest law and hunting rights, so they are frequent in the arms of forest stewards, foresters, hunting families, and landed gentry whose identity is bound to woodland resources. Religious and chivalric overtones appear as well, because the stag and its antlers are linked to saints associated with conversion and pursuit of the divine, and because antlers can evoke heraldic trophies and campaign honours. Militarily they suggest readiness and deterrence rather than aggression, and geographically they are a natural choice for arms from mountainous, upland, or heavily wooded regions where stags are emblematic of place.

Heraldic treatment of attires is highly expressive, with variation in number of tines, orientation, tincture, and whether the antlers are fixed to a helmet, cabossed head, or shown as a rack. A gold or silver set of attires will read as elevated nobility, while darker tinctures lend gravity or mourning. Crossed attires can suggest alliance or duel, and a single shed antler may emphasize sacrifice or loss. For visual examples and further reading consult The Heraldry Society (The Heraldry Society), Heraldry of the World (Heraldry of the World), the College of Arms (College of Arms), Mistholme pictorial dictionary (Mistholme), DrawShield references (DrawShield), and image collections on Wikimedia Commons (Antlers in heraldry).