Alexis Walker

Associate Curator, Dress, Fashion and Textiles

The McCord Stewart Museum’s Dress, Fashion and Textiles collection is a diverse, intriguing treasure trove. I am always amazed and inspired by the hidden histories contained within these objects, and the fascinating stories that emerge through research and study.

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Alexis Walker joined the McCord Stewart Museum as Curatorial Assistant, 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.  She is a member of both the Costume Society of America and the Association of Dress Historians.

More about the Dress, Fashion and Textiles Collection
Explore the collection online

Parachute: Subversive Design and Street Fashion (2^nd edition). New York: Rizzoli, 2024.

(with Caroline Bourgeois), “Collaboration and Creativity in the Curatorial Practice and Mounting Solutions for the Mccord Stewart Museum’s Exhibition Parachute: Subversive Fashion of the ‘80s,” Considering Costume: The Conservation, Apparel, Adornment, and Accessories, North American Textile Conservation Conference, edited by Joel Stephenson, Howard Sutcliffe and Elizabeth Schaeffer, 24-27. Williamsburg (Virginia), 2023.

Parachute: Subversive Design and Street Fashion. Los Angeles: Perron-Roettinger, 2021.

“Dici or Nothing: Fabric Molding and Brassiere Innovation by the Canadelle Company of Montreal.” Dress 45 (2019): 183-195.

“Parachute and 121 Wooster Street, SoHo, New York,” SHIFT: A Virtual Conference on the Ecologies of Fashion, Form and Textile, Griffin Art Projects, North Vancouver, BC, October 21-22, 2023.

With Caroline Bourgeois, “Collaboration and Creativity in the Curatorial Practice and Mounting Solutions for the McCord Stewart Museum’s Exhibition Parachute: Subversive Fashion of the ‘80s,” Considering Costume: The Conservation of Apparel, Adornment, and Accessories, North American Textile Conservation Conference, Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, October 23-27, 2023.

“Urban Armour: Empowerment and Anarchy in Parachute’s Postmodern Fashion,” Fashioning a Decade – 1980s‘, Costume Society Online Conference, October 28-November 8, 2023.

“The Razor’s Edge: Parachute’s Balancing Act Between Establishment and Underground,” Costume Society of America Annual Symposium, Minneapolis, MN, May 25-29, 2022.

“From Sportswear to Streetwear: Parachute’s Dynamic Urban Fashion,” Fashioning the Body for Sports and Leisure: A History of Dress and Textiles, Association of Dress Historians conference, London, UK, September 30-October 1, 2022.

“The Architectural Approach: The Advanced Fashion and Conceptual Retail Spaces of Parachute,” Fashion and Dress in Space and Place, Costume Colloquium VII, Florence, Italy, November 11-15, 2020.

“Dici or Nothing: Fabric Moulding and Brassiere Innovation by the Canadelle Company of Montreal during the 1970s,” Portal to Progress, Costume Society of America, Portland, Maine, May 29-June 4, 2017.