From parachute to wedding dress

The exhibition “From parachute to wedding dress” will be on display in the foyer of ARKIVET from June 2026 and features the wedding dress worn by Olga Rødland when she married Oddvar Verås on 23 March 1946.

The dress is made from parachute silk and has once been an actual parachute. The fabric in this dress has floated high in the air, before ensuring a safe landing for people or equipment, at some point during the Second World War. In a symbolic way, perhaps the dress contributed to a safe landing for Olga and Oddvar’s life together?

Olga Rødland was born on May 5, 1925, in Kvinesdal. She grew up first in Brooklyn (USA) and then in Kvinesdal, as the eldest of four siblings. She had a nice youth in Kvinesdal, with good friends. But the last year of the Second World War was also a time filled with concern for her boyfriend, Oddvar, who was on the run from the Gestapo.

When Olga and Oddvar got married in March 1946, Olga’s mother, Agnes Rødland, masterfully sewed the wedding dress, from a parachute Oddvar had brought with him from the mountain area of Fyresdal.