To modern eyes, this dress looks like a chic example of 1940s style. But it represents a fraught period in history. Its maker, Jeanne van Leur-de Loos, was a Dutch expatriate living in Indonesia during World War II. She was interned by the Japanese in a camp on the island of Makassar, from 1943 to 1945. Her husband, Job van Leur, was killed in 1942 during the Battle of the Java Sea, which led to the  Japanese occupation.

Jeanne made the dress between 1945 and 1946. She returned to the Netherlands in 1948, as Indonesia was securing independence from Dutch rule. The dress is made from two maps, printed on silk for the use of Royal Air Force pilots, active in Southeast Asia during World War II. The maps show parts of Burma (Myanmar), French Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia), Siam (Thailand), India, and China. These types of maps were part of an escape or evasion kit.

Jeanne used a hand-cranked sewing machine to upcycle the maps into a dress well-suited to the hot and humid climate of Indonesia. It’s likely the maps were the only fabric she could lay her hands on. Even so, the dress tells the story of nations at war, and the complex process of unraveling colonialism.

---

Photos: (dress) Schenking van de heer P.A. Terwen, Leiden en de heer J.W. Terwen, Nieuwegein; (map) Schenking van de heer P.A. Terwen, Leiden Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

---

Editor’s note: You can watch a video of Pier Terwen talking about the dress his mother, Jeanne van Leur-do Loos, sewed and wore. This video was part of an exhibit at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.