Meet Paris Perry of Fashion Funeral in Stone Mountain

Today we’d like to introduce you to Paris Perry.

Paris, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’ve always loved and was involved in the arts, mainly fashion, film, and music. I attended Valdosta State University where I majored in mass media. There, I focused on film, learned a lot about marketing, social media, and entrepreneurship. Fresh out of college, I was known as a videographer/filmmaker. I moved back home to Stone Mountain and learned how inconsistent set work is so after a few months picking up gigs on shows I had to pause the “dream” for a second and get a job, lol.

Even then, I still found something I loved which is clothes. I dipped into the retail field and worked at Urban Outfitters, Lenox. During my time at Urban, I ended up building partnerships with local modeling agencies like Kevlar Rose and BRI’GEID Agency, curating, creative directing, and styling photoshoots mainly shot by one of my favorite photographers and close friends Caylee Powell (@gypsys0uls). All the shots were styled with Urban clothes and were shot for Urban Outfitter’s Instagram account for Atlanta.

During my time at Urban is when I also started the idea of “Fashion Funeral.” The idea that someone’s sense of fashion may be dead (lame/wack) to you but as long as that person is confident and content with what they have in your opinion doesn’t matter and that person is poppin’. My whole life, my parents never really rocked with my tomboyish sense of style, ironically, my community does. I started a Depop account and named it @fashionfuneral which I knew was the name of the brand I knew I wanted to eventually create but I figured the name would be great for depop as well. On depop, I list a lot of my old clothes, clothes that I used to love but have now become dead (wack/lame) to me. The concept behind my depop is to make money, lol, but to also give the cool things in my closet that I have left behind a new home. I encourage buyers to send pics of them rocking items they’ve purchased from my shop. I also thrift and list vintage finds on my depop page. I joined Depop September 2018 and now, my account is nearly at 10K followers. Towards my last couple of months at Urban, I learned how to hand sew and I’ve been making custom pieces that I also list on depop.

There’s so much more in store for Fashion Funeral, things I already have planned and things still left for me to discover.

Has it been a smooth road?
It hasn’t been a “smooth” road. My road has been full of zig zags, potholes, and fork in the roads just as any other company that’s just starting out. It’s a process that could take months, years, or decades but I’m here for it as long as people ultimately realize that fashion/style is completely subjective and technically nothing is ever really “dead.”

We’d love to hear more about your business.
My business is self-expression. I specialize in having fun and optimizing my days. I ultimately want to wake up every day and do whatever I want to do/create whatever I want. Paris Perry is my name and my nickname back to back. People that have just met me think it’s my first and last *shrug* it’s just both of my names together, lol, pick one, *shrug* call me both, I don’t care, lol, I just like alliteration.

Fashion Funeral, as I mentioned before is an outlet for me to express myself and destress, to be honest. I thrift for depop and it’s therapeutic, so are the photoshoots I do with my best friend Cloud (@lameassperson). I get a new idea for something to sew/customize and I sit in my room for hours/days at a time working on a project. I post and refresh my depop periodically throughout the day and it helps with my stress, lol.

The customized one of one’s I’ve made are all umbrellaed under the Fashion Funeral brand. I have plans for other clothing releases under the brand as well, things that won’t be one of ones and will be for the masses. What sets my brand apart from the others is that the money isn’t the main reason for doing it, it’s actually last on the list. My business is to ensure my happiness not to please others or so sale high volumes of merchandise. It’s purely to make cool things and have a blast collaborating and connecting with my peers. I intend on getting back into the film community and diving into the music industry which will all be a part of Fashion Funeral in the years to come.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I believe our city is a great birthplace for my brand. I am wholeheartedly from here and that’s so scarce these days. I was born in Atlanta and was driven straight from the hospital right to Stone Mountain and I’ve been here since. Both sets of my great grandparents were born in Atlanta, I know nothing else.

I came back from college to a whole new Atlanta full of hopeful dreamers who’ve moved from other places coming here in hopes that their dreams can come true here. I hate hearing that “Atlanta is the new LA” or “Atlanta is the new New York” likeee huh? Atlanta is Atlanta, lol. We’ve been this. We’ve been here. We’ve been on the map forever. We’ve had the largest airport for God knows how long? Like we’ve been the shit. We aren’t all of a sudden the shit. “In the past few years became the shit,” lol, like where do you all come up with this stuff like seriously, lol. There’s a reason everyone flooded down here and stayed, yes, the price of living is lower than some states but that isn’t the sole reason. We contribute to a lot of America’s culture (not saying other cities do not). But whatever, that’s beside the point, lol.

Um, there’s no other origin I’d want for my company. Like I said, Fashion Funeral is all about acceptance and confidence. Atlanta is so diverse and diversity is always accompanied by adversity. And with that being said, it is imperative that we nurture each others’ differences and embrace everyone. We’re all people who didn’t ask to be born on this Earth, but we’re all here and life is too short harp on everyone’s differences.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.depop.com/fashionfuneral/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/parisperryj/

Image Credit:
All photos were taken/edited by myself.
@marcellusjuvann_ is the model in the pants with the flower on them.

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