Flexible Slate Tiles Turn Stone Into Wearable Material

Vollebak’s Rock Jacket explores how a rigid natural material can become a flexible surface for clothing. Developed with French designer and material technologist Steven Leprizé, the one-off garment combines small slate tiles with a neoprene backing. The result is a proof of concept that brings techniques from experimental furniture and surface design into fashion.

From Experimental Woodworking to Flexible Stone

Leprizé founded his research-led studio, ARCA, in 2009 after training at École Boulle in Paris. His work combines traditional cabinetmaking with industrial processes, including thermoforming, vacuum pressing, CNC machining and 3D printing.

Among his material developments is WooWood, an elastic marquetry made from small wooden tiles bonded to rubber. The backing allows the surface to stretch and bend while retaining its pattern. Leprizé adapted this approach to slate, creating a grid of 5 × 5 mm stone tiles on neoprene.

Vollebak initially approached the designer about developing a more wearable version of its prototype Wood Jacket. His flexible slate offered another direction for the company’s experiments with unconventional clothing materials.

Making a Rigid Material Flexible

Slate is a layered metamorphic rock that splits along natural cleavage planes. This structure allows very thin layers to be separated from thicker slabs using a resin or adhesive carrier, then reinforced so they can be handled and cut.

For this project, Leprizé works with slate sheets measuring 100 × 50 cm and just 0.5 mm thick. Turning them into clean-edged tiles requires a production process involving 50 steps. Cutting is particularly demanding: each tile must remain in sequence to preserve the stone’s natural surface pattern.

Leprizé adapted a bespoke cutting machine originally developed for wood marquetry to process the slate. The tiles are then bonded under pressure to thin neoprene using a specialised adhesive technique developed with engineers at 3M in Switzerland.

Designing Around the Material’s Limits

Although the tiled surface can bend and twist, its flexibility remains limited. Vollebak therefore selected a cropped Harrington silhouette, reducing tight curves, gathers and closely fitted areas while allowing movement through the arms.

The jacket uses five slate sheets, which were laser-cut into garment components. Rather than stitching through the stone tiles, the construction uses visible taped seams. Cordura® pockets and a zip provide functional details, while the slate’s surface variations remain prominent.

A Starting Point for Further Research

The Rock Jacket remains an experimental garment rather than a practical everyday product. Vollebak identifies scalability and wearability as longer-term ambitions, while Leprizé is developing related materials using granite, marble, sandstone and schist.

The project also questions disposable fashion through its use of geological material. However, natural stone alone does not establish environmental performance: the construction also contains neoprene and adhesive, and the source provides no lifecycle or recyclability assessment. Its principal contribution is demonstrating a new way to combine rigid mineral surfaces with flexible backing materials.

Source & photos: Vollebak