Mineral T Shirt

Name: Mineral T Shirt. Hematite edition
Brand: Vollebak
SKU: TPS054REDXSM
Price: 125.00 USD
Availability: InStock

Made with the same 3 billion-year-old mineral that cavemen used to paint their caves.

$125

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Model is 5ft 11 / 180cm with a 38 inch / 97cm chest, and wears size Medium.

Garment dyed with 100% hematite mineral powder
Material is a blend of hemp and organic cotton
Four-way stretch

As we continue to look for new, low impact ways to dye clothing, we’ve turned to the colouring tools of early man – minerals, rocks, and soils. Minerals don’t just tell the story of life on Earth, they also tell the story of colour. When our solar system settled into its current shape around 4.5 billion years ago, Earth was created by a series of galactic collisions. Tectonic plates began to form. And geological life and biological life fused together to create vast mineral deposits in the Earth’s upper crust. So when prehistoric man first picked up a prehistoric paintbrush, they turned to the ground around them. Today, instead of using those minerals to paint cave walls, we’re using them to dye clothing. Our Mineral T Shirt is garment dyed in a giant bath of hematite. There are only 2 by-products of this process – sediment, and water. Both of which can go straight back into nature.

Technical Details

Material made in Portugal: 53% hemp, 44% organic cotton, 3% elastane

Dyed with 100% hematite mineral powder

Soft and breathable

Four-way stretch

Material weighs 220g/m2

T shirt weighs 240 grams

Machine wash 30°C

Constructed in Portugal

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Minerals tell the story of life on Earth

As we continue to look for new, low impact ways to dye clothing, we’ve turned to the colouring tools of early man – minerals, rocks, and soils. Minerals don’t just tell the story of life on Earth, they also tell the story of colour.

They also tell the story of colour

When our solar system settled into its current shape around 4.5 billion years ago, Earth was created by a series of galactic collisions. Tectonic plates began to form. And geological life and biological life fused together to create vast mineral deposits in the Earth’s upper crust. So when prehistoric man first picked up a prehistoric paintbrush, they turned to the minerals, rocks and soils around them. Today, instead of using those minerals to paint cave walls, we’re using them to dye clothing. And it's why this t shirt is garment dyed in a giant bath of hematite.

Made with a 3.5 billion year old mineral called hematite

Hematite is a mineral with an amazing history. It was first used by prehistoric humans to paint cave walls 164,000 years ago. Ancient Egyptians turned to it to heal wounds. And Leonardo da Vinci painted his masterpieces with it. But its origins go back even further. 3.5 billion years ago, gram-negative bacteria called cyanobacteria released free oxygen into the ocean. This combined with iron to make hematite, which sank to the seabed to form rocks that are still around today.

It's called ‘the blood stone’

Because hematite is a crystal-like form of iron oxide, it’s often mistaken for meteorites. As the primary source of iron on Earth, it's shaped civilisations for millennia and has been described as ‘carrying within it the weight of human survival’. Scrape any piece of hematite across a rock and it will leave behind its signature red streak. Which is why it was known as ‘the blood stone’ in the Middle Ages.

It’s collected in Italy

While legend has it that large deposits of hematite formed on battlegrounds where soldiers were injured and lost blood from intense fighting, our hematite starts life in Italy in an area that stretches from Venice to Verona. Over thousands of years the area has seen a unique set of geological transformations, creating a landscape where the ‘marble mountains’ of the Apuan Alps sit next to the carbonate rocks of the Dolomites.

Garment dyed in hematite powder

Found in sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks, the hematite is collected, refined, refracted, and turned into a clean powder. To make the t shirt we then add the mineral powder to a vat of water and submerge the whole garment – a process called ‘garment dyeing.’ There are only 2 by-products of this process. Sediment, and water. Both of which can go straight back into nature.

It creates a softer t shirt with a softer colour

Most clothes today are piece-dyed, which means the fabric is dyed before it’s cut up and sewn together. Garment dyeing requires more time and more care, but it creates softer fabrics with softer colours. And it means that rather than harsh chemicals, we only need to use heat, time and pressure for the colour of the hematite to stick to the t shirt.

Minerals create a different kind of colour

Nearly all the colour you see in clothing today will have been created with petroleum-based dyes. But colour in clothing existed long before the chemical dyeing industry was invented. So we’ve gone back to the colour palette of early man. Because each t shirt is made using minerals made by nature, you might find small differences in colour across it. And because it’s garment dyed, every t shirt has a pre-worn look.

Feels like your favourite old t shirt

To add to the softness of the t shirt, we don’t just garment dye it in minerals, it’s also made with a blend of 53% hemp, 44% organic cotton, and 3% elastane for stretch, giving it a soft feel and a nice weight.

We need to rethink colour

We tend to think of the colour on our clothes as one thing. Something uniform, bold, and often bright. But this is created using highly synthetic processes. And the colours that nature produces aren’t like that. There are no crazy colours on cave walls because they simply didn’t exist. Dyeing clothing in minerals, rocks and soils is designed to help us rethink how colour can be made.