This World War II-era gown was made from a deployed parachute by Eau Claire, WI, resident Majil Steiner, wife of Lt. Floyd Steiner who bailed out of a B-29 with it strapped to his body. While serving with the 40th Bomb Group in the China-Burma-India Theater, Lt. Steiner’s B-29 was badly damaged by Japanese fighter planes during a mission to Omura in November 1944. The crewmembers managed to keep the B-29 airborne back across the China Sea, however low fuel levels forced them to bail out over Japanese-occupied territory in eastern China. Steiner was fortunate to be rescued quickly and smuggled to safety by local farmers. He kept his parachute throughout the ordeal, and upon returning to his base in Chakulia, India, mailed it to his wife. He asked that she reuse the material to make herself a new dress. As Majil later recounted, “When the box arrived, I opened it, and with amazement pulled out the roomful of nylon parachute.” Originally measuring 24 feet in diameter, the parachute’s substantial panels had to be painstakingly taken apart by hand. Their sheerness also meant lining material would have to be acquired, a difficult task given wartime limitations. Not deterred by wartime limits, Majil sought help from a fabric company in St. Paul, MN. The company took such an interest in her story that they mailed her yards of material free of charge. She received additional help from an area seamstress as well as a rug maker from near Minneapolis, MN, who taught her how to braid the parachute’s cords into decorative elements on the garment. Majil’s evening dress was completed in 1945. She wore it for a studio portrait that she then mailed to her husband overseas. Lt. Steiner carried the photograph of her wearing the life-saving parachute material until returning home safely later that year.