Parachute pants are a style of trousers

Trousers

Trousers are an item of clothing worn on the lower part of the body from the waist to the ankles, covering both legs separately...

 characterised by the use of nylon

Nylon

Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers known generically as polyamides, first produced on February 28, 1935, by Wallace Carothers at DuPont's research facility at the DuPont Experimental Station...

, especially ripstop nylon. In the original loose-fitting, extraneously zippered style of the late 70s/early 80s, "parachute" referred to the pants' synthetic nylon material. In the later 80s, "parachute" may have referred to the extreme bagginess of the pant. They are typically worn as menswear and are often brightly colored. Parachute pants became a fad

FAD

In biochemistry, flavin adenine dinucleotide is a redox cofactor involved in several important reactions in metabolism. FAD can exist in two different redox states, which it converts between by accepting or donating electrons. The molecule consists of a riboflavin moiety bound to the phosphate...

 in US culture in the 1980s as part of an increased cultural appropriation

Cultural appropriation

Cultural appropriation is the adoption of some specific elements of one culture by a different cultural group. It describes acculturation or assimilation, but can imply a negative view towards acculturation from a minority culture by a dominant culture. It can include the introduction of forms of...

 of breakdancing. Parachute pants played a pivotal role in the 1980s in fashion

1980s in fashion

In the 1970s, the silhouette of fashion tended to be characterized by close fitting clothes on top with wider, looser clothes on the bottom. This trend completely reversed itself in the early 1980s as both men and women began to wear looser shirts and tight, close-fitting trousers.Men wore power...

.

Functional clothing

Early breakdancers occasionally used heavy nylon to construct jumpsuit

Jumpsuit

Jumpsuit originally referred to the utilitarian one-piece garments used by parachuters/skydivers, but has come to be used as a common term for any one-piece garment with sleeves and legs.-Use:...

s or trousers

Trousers

Trousers are an item of clothing worn on the lower part of the body from the waist to the ankles, covering both legs separately...

 that would be able to endure contact with the break dancing surface while at the same time decreasing friction with the dancing surface, allowing speedy and intricate "downrock

Downrock

Downrock is an element of breakdance that includes all footwork performed on the floor. Downrock is normally performed with the hands and feet on the floor, as opposed to toprock. In downrock, the breakdancer displays his or her proficiency with foot speed and control by performing footwork...

" routines without fear of friction burns or wear in clothing. Some, possibly apocryphal, sources attribute the use of genuine parachute nylon having been cut to make such trousers possible. In the early part of the 80s, parachute pants were more tight-fitting and only later became looser. In the later 80s, the term "parachute pants" was used to describe any pants that were somewhat voluminous and narrow at the ankles, sometimes cinched with a tie cord running through the lower hem (unlike bellbottoms or wide-leg baggy jeans) in order to increase mobility for dance moves requiring flexibility. Due to both the use of nylon in the parachute

Parachute

A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag, or in the case of ram-air parachutes, aerodynamic lift. Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong cloth, originally silk, now most commonly nylon...

s, and the large baggy appearance of the parachute pants, the style of pants became known as parachute pants. Often, early outfits were of a single color or slightly patchwork in nature as they were sometimes made of found materials.

When manufactured and marketed as fashionable clothing, parachute pants were often constructed with lightweight synthetic fabrics, making this variety of pants more suitable for fashion than breakdancing.

Fashionable clothing

As fashion cut pants, parachute pants were popularized by hip-hop performers. From this point, they were often woven of loose, light fabric, with a low seat containing many folds, and sometimes printed with complex designs, ranging from neon patterns to prints resembling Middle Eastern pattern embroidery, contrasting the earlier monochromatic heavy jumpsuits and trousers. They were also sometimes seen with many zipper

Zipper

A zipper is a commonly used device for temporarily joining two edges of fabric...

s, hook-and-loop fasteners, and pockets, although many of these pockets were too small to be used as pockets and existed only in order to apply another zipper or other superficial feature to the outfit. Parachute pants were then used primarily in choreographed hip hop

Hip hop dance

Hip-hop dance refers to dance styles primarily performed to hip-hop music or that have evolved as part of hip-hop culture. It includes a wide range of styles notably breaking, locking, and popping which were created in the 1970s by African Americans and made popular by breaking, locking, and...

 dancing, with the light, baggy fabric and folds visually enhancing the flowing rhythm of the dancers' moves while allowing for greater comfort and mobility.

Decline in use

Parachute pants fell out of fashion in the late eighties. By the early nineties, parachute pants were sometimes mocked in popular culture as emblems of the eighties, much as flares and bellbottoms are associated with the sixties and seventies.