High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Parachute pants are a style of trousers characterised by the use of ripstop nylon and/or extremely baggy cuts. In the original loose-fitting, extraneously zippered style of the late 70s, "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 in US culture in the 1980s as part of an increased cultural appropriation of breakdancing.