ROICA By Asahi Kasei Is Making A Sustainable Fashion Footprint

New Products and Innovation

ROICA By Asahi Kasei Is Making A Sustainable Fashion Footprint

The cutting-edge stretch fibre shows the way for a responsible wardrobe starting with the choice of a smart ingredient. The acceleration towards an increasingly smart and sustainable world is happening and it is real. Consumers are increasingly looking for something that corresponds to their responsible values and they are driven by a conscious choice. ROICA™ by Asahi Kasei is the premium stretch ingredient that identifies itself as the answer to the needs of the current consumers: innovative, responsible and at the same time contemporary. The premium stretch fibre has always been characterised by a strong innovation DNA and it started delivering new and sustainable values and performances since July 2017. ROICA Eco-Smart™ is a family of innovative stretch yarns that lately has been confirmed to be the most glamorous and responsible one. It includes:

The world’s first Global Recycled Standard (GRS) recycled stretch yarn -ROICA™ EF that uses 58% pre-consumer recycled content.
A premium sustainable stretch yarn, ROICA™ V550, that at the end of its life smartly breaks down without releasing harmful substances in the environment according to Hohenstein Environment Compatibility Certification and also boasting the Gold Level Material Health Certificate by Cradle-to-Cradle Product Innovation Institute** as it has been evaluated for impact on human and environmental health.

The journey for a sustainable wardrobe begins with the choice of the ingredients for each single garment, starting with the fabrics. In this sense, ROICA™ has become a global success in the textile industry reaching the end consumer’s wardrobe, thanks to its valuable partnerships. Iluna Group offers an alchemy of design and advanced sustainable features, with the FW 21/22 collection that focuses on design excellence: the range of sustainable products expands by adding to the GRS certified Green Label, the BIOLINE, made with raw materials such as the precious ROICA™ V550 premium stretch fibre combining elasticity and comfort and other benefits in terms of circular economy related to the health and end of life of materials. ECONNECTION, the new eco-high-tech collection designed thinking of the “end of life” where the responsible materials feature advanced knitted stretch fabrics by Penn Textile Solutions/Penn Italia, laces by Tessitura Colombo Antonio and functional bands by Elastici Besana. In this case, the new generation of ingredients used is ROICA™ V550. ROICA™ is also the choice of brands that offer sustainable options to end consumers, covering all the possible categories of a proper responsible wardrobe. This smart fashion side of ROICA™ emerges from the collection of the avant-garde luxury brand Viktor&Rolf in collaboration with the Swiss premium underwear label CALIDA. The jointly developed capsule is a 100% compostable collection of loungewear and day and night underwear styles for women and men, based on 100% NATURE products from CALIDA, which are MADE IN GREEN by Oeko-Tex® and Cradle to Cradle™ certified**, using the premium stretch yarn ROICA™ V550, allowing excellent and durable printability. Successful partnerships of the premium stretch fibre continue with G-Star’s “Most Sustainable Jeans”: the Cradle to Cradle Certified™ Gold denim fabric that features ROICA™ V550, whose chemistry presents zero risk for people and planet. ROICA™ is also well recognised in the sports field, thanks to its premium and high performing stretch fibre with high performance. Indeed, it is one of the main ingredients of Licia Florio, a unique women’s soft sports brand that creates Made in Italy products in collaboration with M.I.T.I. materials that mix ROICA™ EF with recycled polyamide. ROICA™ has also made it possible to create the first 100% sustainable biking uniform born from a collaboration between the bikers and smart textile companies: the partnership counted SCOTT Racing Team, Sitip and Rosti. Thanks to its premium stretchability features, ROICA™ EF is even the perfect ingredient for high-quality and smart legwear. Calzedonia chooses seamless smart products belonging to the GRR certified collection by Iluna Group for its new Eco Collection of different styles of tights. The premium ingredient used in the capsule this time is ROICA™ EF, which gives superior comfort and a performing fit. Sarah Borghi, a brand that provides premium Italian socks & hosiery launched the brand-new Green Collection that contains ROICA™ V550, representing the next generation of innovation and design and integrating essential and smart values into fashion to meet today’s responsible consumer. Intimissimi Green Collection is a special line made of Iluna laces that contains as smart ingredient the recycled stretch fiber ROICA™ EF, giving superior comfort and a performance fit. The smart high-tech fibre ends up being used also in fashionable masks, proving to be a contemporary and versatile ingredient: Cifra, Iluna Group, Rosti and Sitip considering the current pandemic, launch a glamourous collection of masks that feature the premium stretch family yarns of ROICA Eco-Smart™. These important achievements prove that smart yarns are globally recognised for their innovation, technology and a strong commitment to provide comfort with style and a responsible attitude. The company is working towards many other ambitious collaborations for its smart fibres.