Petticoat

This wedding trousseau petticoat was made by the bride-to-be of a Royal New Zealand Air Force pilot just after the Second World War, at a time when fabric for new clothing (particularly silk) was scarce.

Parachute nylon is soft and light (but very strong) and made a good replacement for silk (which would have been more desirable for a wedding trousseau). It was also a way for the bride to honour the war service of her husband-to-be and may have been part of the tradition of brides wearing 'something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue'.

At the beginning of the war parachutes were typically silk, but by the 1940s nylon had been developed for use in fabric and other supplies. Nylon was made by Du Pont and became a significant war material from February 1942. Parachute canopies took about 65 metres of fabric to make, so were an extensive source of recyclable material for clothing and other home textiles once no longer of use to the Air Force.