JUST IN…Atelier 688 Map Cushions!

We’re obsessed…ngl.

During World War II, the United States and Great Britain produced in excess of 3.5 million silk maps and cloth maps for Allied military personnel to use as escape maps.  In 1940, the British military intelligence unit, known as MI 9, started issuing silk maps for use by British aircrews shot down over enemy occupied territory in Europe.  The silk maps were intended to assist airman in evading capture.  MI 9 also smuggled silk and tissue paper escape maps into POW camps in Germany along with other escape aids to encourage POWs to attempt escape.

After the US’s entry into WWII, US military intelligence officers learned of the activities of MI 9 and established a similar intelligence unit referred to as MIS-X, which began mass-producing cloth maps and tissue paper escape maps for US military personnel.  The first US cloth maps were printed on balloon cloth, but soon thereafter a more suitable material, acetate rayon, was found and used for all subsequent cloth maps.

Atelier 688 Silk Aviator maps are made from original balloon silk aviator maps and are backed with Egyptian cotton for the maximum in comfort.  The idea for making these old silk maps into cushions came from artist/photographer/writer Alex Jowett, whose uncle died in WW2 as a Royal Australian Air Force bomber pilot.  Jowett still has two of his uncles original Silk aviator maps framed in glass and hopes that these cartographic cushions remain a comfortable and pleasing reminder of the sacrifice aviators made for the general public during WW2.