I was not even a teen in the ’80s but I loved the culture. Growing up in New York with older siblings who dressed and adorned themselves like Michael Jackson or Madonna was my first taste for fashion. As the ’90s rolled around, I moved to Montreal so a different era had begun. Therefore upon walking into the Parachute Fashion Exhibition, I didn’t realize the immense culture and fashion education I was about to receive, with New York as one of the cities to celebrate this monumental brand.
I was accompanied by a Publicist friend, raised in Montreal and Ottawa, and knew all about Parachute, so when I expressed my excitement “find out all about the nature of it all” – she turned to me and said: “it’s the pants, the pants Petrona”. Then it all made sense.
We submerged into a world of freedom of expression. The kind of expression that we sometimes yearn for in modern everyday fashion. “Founded in Montreal in 1977 by British clothing designer Nicola Pelly and American architect and urban planner Harry Parnass, Parachute was active in the world of fashion until 1993. The brand translated the cultural anxieties of the early beginnings of the digital age into avant-garde clothing that aspired to change people’s perspectives and shake up the status quo”.
With Stephane Leduc, a Montreal iconic public figure as the curator and spokesperson behind the exhibition, you will be privy to a world of “avant-garde creations, you will learn more about the brand through some sixty outfits, including two-stage costumes from the personal collection of Peter Gabriel, archival documents (sketches, advertisements, promotional photographs and images taken in Montreal’s night clubs), interviews and video excerpts of fashion shows and concerts”.
The exhibition ends April 24th, 2022 a the McCord Museum in Montreal.
Source: McCord Museum
Cover and Exhibition Photo Courtesy: Roy & Turner Communications
Michael Jackson: https://www.mjvibe.com/parachute-exhibition-michael-jackson-wear/
