Tag Archives: Body Armour

Fashion

Clothes From The Future- Indestructible Chinos Woven With Strongest Fibre On Earth

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While vollebak’s Indestructible Chinos look and feel exactly like the chinos worn by JFK and Steve McQueen, they’re woven with the strongest fibre on Earth, and are now our best-selling pants. Like most men’s clothing, chinos emerged from war. This time it was the Spanish-American one. They were slim-fitting, flat-fronted, functional, and most importantly… really really dependable.


 
By 1902, after heavy field-testing, they’d been made an official part of the US Army uniform. But once World War II was over, the guys who’d fought went off to college still wearing them, turning them into an instant hit on the Ivy League campuses.
 
And their reputation was only cemented as a staple of mid-century menswear when they became the standard issue kit for John F. Kennedy and Steve McQueen.
 
Which is why, 120+ years later, you still don’t need to mess with the design. So we haven’t.
 
Instead we’ve taken pants you’ve always been able to rely on, and woven them with the strongest fibre on Earth… so you can rely on them even more. 


 
Our Indestructible Chinos come in 2 colours. We’ve got a Sand edition (the lighter colour), and a Sandstone edition (which is the slightly darker colour).
 
While they look and feel like regular chinos, every pair of Indestructible Chinos is made with a blend of cotton and Dyneema – which is the same stuff used in body armour, arctic ropes and the sides of tanks.

CRAFTED WITH A 180-YEAR-OLD JAPANESE FABRIC MILL

To make the Indestructible Chinos, vollebak worked with Toyoshima, a 180-year-old Japanese textile company that has been certified as Japan’s first Dyneema® Premium Manufacturing Partner.

Of course you’d never know this just by putting them on.

And that’s because the Dyneema is woven in with the cotton during the weaving process, so you’ll only ever feel the softness of the cotton, not the strength of the Dyneema. And they’ve also been garment washed so they feel lived in from day one. So you’ll only ever know about the Dyneema when you suddenly need it.


 
Fit wise they’re similar to Equator Pants but with a slightly more relaxed cut. And if you want a hand with sizing you can get in touch with us here.  For the Silo, NICK AND STEVE TIDBALL.

Technical Details

  • Material made in Japan: 95% cotton, 5% Dyneema®
  • Highly abrasion resistant
  • Zip fly
  • 5 belt loops
  • 2 front pockets
  • 2 zipped rear pockets
  • Pocket lining: 70% cotton, 30% Cordura
  • Gentle machine washing 30°C
  • Constructed in Portugal
Vintage

Protecting the body in Combat- European Bronze Style

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This monograph provides for the first time a combined overview of all classes of metal body armour from the European Bronze Age in a holistic perspective, combining discussion of both traditional typo-chronologies and aspects of manufacture and use.

The earliest metal body armour recovered comes from Dendra, Greece, and dates to the first half of the 15th century BC.

However, the majority of metal body armour, including helmets, cuirasses and greaves, derives from the European Late Bronze Age, c. 1200–950 BC. This armour has been found from Iberia in the west to Cyprus in the east, and from Sicily in the south to Denmark in the north, as well as in the Near East. It thus derives from a wide geographical study area. Nevertheless, only around 30 cuirasses, 75 greaves and 120 helmets have so far been recovered.

The development, manufacture and use of this metal body armour across Europe remains unclear, even after more than a century of research. Earlier studies were largely concerned with typo-chronological aspects of this armour, whilst topics such as manufacturing techniques, efficacy and technological observations were rarely addressed.

Page 29 from the full volume available below. Click on the hypertext at the end of this post for the PDF.

This volume therefore brings together both traditional artefact and metallurgical studies, as well as reconstructions of manufacturing techniques, technological developments and innovations and use-wear analysis. The monograph also provides much-needed detail concerning material characterisation, in the form of alloy composition and microstructure analysis of a significant sample of the original finds.

Combining the results of this with the study of the manufacturing techniques and use-wear traces, a better understanding of how this armour was both produced and used is achieved. I have documented, studied and analysed all accessible helmets, greaves and cuirasses in eastern Europe as well as a number of examples from western Europe, significantly increasing the quantity of body armour studied and analysed in detail. The publication contains the whole spectrum of known body armour currently recovered, as well as including ‘new’ finds from auctions or private collections, which have previously been overlooked.

The present volume offers a holistic artefact study of European Bronze Age body armour, its manufacture and usage. It serves as a basis for further experimental studies into the production and utility of bronze helmets, cuirasses and greaves, which will deliver further important insights in … View full abstract For the Silo, Marianne Modlinger.