It’s wedding season (but you knew that). This gown was made from a nylon parachute that saved

It’s wedding season (but you knew that). This gown was made from a nylon parachute that saved Maj. Claude Hensinger during World War II.

The pilot was returning from a raid over Japan in August 1944 when his engine caught fire. When he proposed to his girlfriend Ruth after the war, he offered her the material from the parachute that saved his life.

She worked with a seamstress to create the bodice, and used the strings on the parachute to shorten the front of the dress and create a train in the back.

The couple married July 19, 1947, and the dress was later donated to our National Museum of American History.

It’s not even the only parachute wedding dress in our collection—it wasn’t uncommon for soldiers’ parachutes, made from fabric scarce during the war, to become wedding attire. #ontrend