It’s a delight to be involved in a great design exhibition, even as just a footnote in fashion history, as my twin brother Charles and I are in Parachute: Subversive Fashion of the ‘80s at the McCord Museum in Montreal. In 1986 we were photographed by Serge Barbeau for the Autumn/Winter 1986/87 Parachute advertising campaign and the photo is included in the exhibition and in its remarkable catalogue. Alexis Walker, curator of the exhibition, was interested in our memories of the shoot and the fashion scene at the time. She did an incredible job of gathering stories and observations from a vast cast of collaborators in the mutable 15 year history of a brand that had a huge impact in a relatively short span of time. We came in as models towards the end of the Parachute story: as Alexis Walker wrote in the catalogue Parachute was “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 . . . From its beginnings inspired by New Wave subculture to its position as a veritable international fashion sensation, the Parachute brand from Montreal was recognized from New York to Tokyo for its visionary, bold apparel and innovative concept stores.” Parachute’s clothes and its enormous SoHo, New York, store were ultra cool in 1981, when I wore their khaki cotton military-style knickers the first time I went to the Mudd Club. As the catalogue notes: “Parachute’s spectacular success owed much to the brand’s Manhattan presence at the start of the 1980s. With the vision of Harry Parnass, Nicola Pelly and New York Partner Morgan Allard, the SoHo store on Wooster Street became a legendary downtown locale of the era, a cool, creative hotspot, and its triumph was the catalyst that brought the company international fame and fortune.” The exhibition is on view until April 24th 2022 and there is a lot of great imagery and information on the museum’s website: https://www.musee-mccord.qc.ca/en/exhibitions/parachute/