Roica, the premium elastane fibre from Asahi Kasei, has been awarded a prestigious award from influential Japanese fashion newspaper Senken Shimbun. Roica, which is GRS certified with more than 50 per cent preconsumer recycled content, has received the prestigious Senken Shimbun Synthetic Fibre Prize in the Sustainable category. The winning Roica yarn is part of the Eco-Smart family, a range of unique and responsible made premium stretch fibres. At the event awards, Asahi Kasei presented fabric and garment samples made using Eco-Smart from a number of leading textile firms including Iluna Group, M.I.T.I., Tessitura Colombo Antonio, Tintex Textiles, Cosabella, Maloja and Triumph.
M.I.T.I. recently launched Green Soul, a new fabric line made with fully recycled fibres. The Ten different fabrics within this collection are composed of both polyamide/Eco-Smart and Polyester/Eco-Smart offering 100 per cent recycled fibre warp knitted, stretch fabrics. The winning Bluesign certified fabric is called Thermal Green and is a high-end, brush back warp knit fabric made with recycled polyamide and Eco-Smart. Eco-Smart has also found success with Portuguese circular knitter Tintex with its recently launched B.Cork water-based laminated fabrics. First launched at Performance Days in November, the laminated fabric coating derived from cork can be applied to both woven and knit fabrics and is said to be breathable – while also claiming strong environmental credentials given that all of the materials would have otherwise gone unused and straight to landfill.
B.Cork is said to be fully commercialised with a patent-pending for the accompanying water-based lamination technique, free from formaldehyde and solvents. The company says that the coating is suitable for applications on both knits and woven textiles, along with all of Tintex’s ‘smart fibre bases’. Cork, even without the added benefit of being sourced as a pre-consumer waste product, is becoming an increasingly popular material for brands conscious of environmental impact. Eco-Smart has also found recent applications in the Eco-Lace collections by Tessitura Colombo Antonio fabrics for the Cosabella brand and new stretch lace fabrics from Iluna Group for the Essence by Triumph collection.
