Signing session
June 19 | 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Signing Session of Parachute: Subversive Design and Street Fashion book
Free activity | Museum Boutique
Grab your copy of the new book Parachute: Subversive Design and Street Fashion by Alexis Walker, Associate Curator, Dress, Fashion and Textiles, and Nicola Pelly, co-founder of Parachute. The authors will be signing copies on June 19 from 5 p.m. at the Museum Boutique!
Information
- Free Signing session, on Wednesday, June 19, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
- Price: Parachute: Subversive Design and Street Fashion book : $85 | Free autograph
- Location: Museum Boutique
About
The book – Parachute: Subversive Design and Street Fashion
Uniquely designed with ephemera layered over photographs as if in the founders’ own scrapbooks, this 360-page bilingual work is a definitive insight into a highly influential cult 1980s brand, and a key reference for anyone interested in the history of subcultural fashion and streetwear. Alexis Walker’s extensive original research has culminated in this remarkable book closely tied to the Parachute: Subversive Fashion of the 1980s (2021-2022) exhibition. As the curator of this exhibition at the McCord Stewart Museum, Walker’s efforts were recognized with the prestigious Richard Martin Exhibition Award from the Costume Society of America in 2023. Notably, the exhibition garnered an impressive attendance of nearly 90,000 visitors.
Walker explores the history of the brand through hundreds of images, many never published, including personal photography from the founders of the label alongside striking editorial and campaign imagery. She also highlights the extensive archives and collection of Parachute brand items, generously donated by Nicola Pelly to the Museum.
Alexis Walker, Introduction by Nicola Pelly, Bilingual, 360 pages, Rizzoli, May 7, 2024, 978-0-8478-9972-2
Available for international sale
Look back on the exhibition
Parachute: Subversive Fashion of the 1980s (2021-2022)
About the authors
Alexis Walker
Alexis Walker joined the McCord Museum as Curatorial Assistant in Dress, Fashion and Textiles in 2015. She has a BFA in Textiles from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and an MA in Fashion and Textiles Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. She is particularly interested in the intersections of contemporary fashion with art, music, film and pop culture.
She was curatorial assistant for Fashioning Expo 67 (2018), co-curator of Jean-Claude Poitras: Fashion and Inspiration (2019), a joint exhibition with the Musée de la Civilisation, and curator of Parachute: Subversive Fashion of the ‘80s (2021), for which the Museum won the Costume Society of America’s 2023 Richard Martin Exhibition Award.
In addition to her curatorial work, Walker is an embroidery and textile artist as well as a former fashion and costume designer and stylist. She has taught fashion history at George Brown College in Toronto and LaSalle College in Montreal.
Nicola Pelly
Nicola Pelly studied fashion & design at the Kingston College of Art in London amidst the youth-driven counterculture music, fashion and art revolutions of the1960s. Immigrating to Montreal in 1971, Pelly worked as a designer for sportswear manufacturer Bagatelle Ltd. before joining Le Château in 1976 as a design coordinator. After the Parachute stores were closed Nicola stepped back to focus on their young children. She worked with her partner Harry on his projects including collaborating with UNHCR to design a village for refugees.
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