A vintage fashion show to benefit Parkinson’s Disease research is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4 at Overlake Terrace Assisted Living and Memory Care, 2956 152nd Ave. in Redmond.
Tickets are $10 and people of all ages are invited. For information, call (425) 284-4982.
The show will be presented by a non-profit Parkinson’s organization called “Pinky’s Passion for the Cure.” Founder Pat Erickson, whose nickname is Pinky, was diagnosed with the neurological disease in 2001, when she was just 45 years old.
At first, she tried to hide her illness, but then “my husband told me that if I was ever going to do any good for Parkinson’s, I had to come out of the closet, so to speak. Parkinson’s is often associated with elderly people but one of the things I hope to bring to light is that it also affects many younger people,” she said.
A very famous young person with Parkinson’s is TV and movie actor Michael J. Fox, whom Erickson met at a gala event in New York. She and her husband had become involved in Team Fox, the actor’s grassroots fundraising project for Parkinson’s research. They were invited to the MJF Foundation event after her first fashion show raised $12,000 for the cause.
“He was everything you hoped he would be — funny, very caring and really smart,” Erickson said about Fox. “And he took time to sit down and talk to everyone. It wasn’t like, ‘I took a picture with you and now I’m done.’”
The “Pinky’s Passion for the Cure” fashion show features clothing from the turn-of-the-20th Century through the 1970s.
“I haven’t yet included the ‘80s, but am starting to collect things with the thought that someday that will really be considered vintage,” Erickson added, laughing.
She’d always been a fan of kitschy hats, then picked up a vintage dress or two along the way, “then a few more and it just started to snowball,” she explained. “I’ve had quite a few things donated to me, which is wonderful. And I’m an ‘ebay-holic’ and have found other things at estate sales or Goodwill.”
During the fashion shows, she provides commentary about the origins of the clothing and the cultural happenings of that era.
“I always wonder, ‘Does society change fashion or does fashion drive society?’,” she noted. “One of my very favorite dresses was made from feed sacks. This was quite common in the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s. American women were very resourceful and made clothes from whatever they had. They would need at least three feed sacks to make a dress and of course, you had to have three matching feed sacks, so the manufacturers became very competitive to have the most attractive prints.”
Shari Cassara, a registered nurse and community relations representative for Overlake Terrace Assisted Living and Memory Care, said the idea to host the fashion show for Parkinson’s came up because Erickson’s sister is an Alzheimer’s case manager at the home.
“We’ve known Pat for a while, she’s well-known for her work with Michael J. Fox, and she’s a real go-getter and works very hard, even with Parkinson’s herself,” said Cassara. “We have a quite a few Parkinson’s residents here and have had family members with it. This is our demographic and her fashion shows are a hoot, with all the hats, shoes and accessories from each era. Our goal is to raise $1,000 or more for Parkinson’s research.”
In addition to the fashions on parade, the event at Overlake Terrace Assisted Living and Memory Care will feature a guest speaker, Dr. Pinky (yes, another Pinky!) Agerwal from the Booth Gardner Center for Parkinson’s Disease. Refreshments are also included.
For more information about Pinky’s Passion for the Cure, visit www.pinkyspassion.org. To donate money or vintage clothing for the cause, e-mail paterickson@pinkyspassion.org or call (206) 542-8777.
