Forget GORE-TEX waterproof shells – Vollebak's wild new £50,000 jacket is literally made from the Earth's crust
The one-of-one Rock Jacket uses thousands of tiny slate tiles
by Matt Kollat · T3
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Vollebak has made jackets from some pretty unconventional materials over the years, including copper and wood, but its latest experiment might be its most wonderfully absurd yet.
The British clothing brand has unveiled the Rock Jacket, and in this case, the name quite literally refers to the material it's made from.
More specifically, Vollebak has covered the garment in thousands of tiny squares of slate, creating something that looks like a futuristic body armour from Minecraft. And I'm 100% on board with the idea.
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The reason why I'm not buying the Rock Jacket is that there is only one made and it costs £50,000, so it's slightly out of my price range.
Rock and roll
While some might focus on the price tag, the most interesting aspect of the jacket is how Vollebak managed to turn a material generally associated with roofs and floors into something you can actually move around in.
The project began with French designer and material technologist Steven Leprizé, whom Vollebak originally approached about making a more wearable version of its experimental Wooden Jacket.
Leprizé adapted his WooWood elastic marquetry technique, which uses hundreds of small wooden tiles backed with rubber, replacing the wood with slate.
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The slate arrives in sheets measuring 100cm by 50cm and just 0.5mm thick, which are then cut into tiny 5mm × 5mm squares before being attached to a neoprene backing.
The tiny gaps between the tiles allow the material to twist and move without completely disguising the slate's naturally uneven surface.
Vollebak says there are around 50 steps involved in making the material, with Leprizé describing cutting the tiles as the most important part of the process.
Stone Age tech meets sci-fi
Vollebak has turned that material into a relatively minimalist, cropped Harrington-style jacket.
The slate sheets are laser-cut, the seams are deliberately left visibly taped, and Cordura pockets and a zip provide the Rock Jacket a reassuringly conventional feel.
From a distance, it almost resembles leather or some exotic technical laminate, but once you get closer, the grid of individual stone tiles becomes obvious.
Even though there's only one made, Vollebak sees the Rock Jacket as more than an expensive one-off experiment.
Co-founder Nick Tidball suggests rock could eventually become a legitimate clothing material, although he acknowledges developing the idea could take a decade or longer.
The Vollebak Rock Jacket is available now for £50,000, although "available" is doing some heavy lifting here: only a single example has been made.