The road to fade-proof neon fabric

We love designing with bright fabric colors – to us, they help capture the Pepper vibe we are after – energetic, bold, happy and a little spicy. Not surprisingly we started dabbling with neons, the brightest of all colors, not long after launching Pepper Swimwear and our first experiment with it became a bestselling item.

Our customers commented that the neon straps really make the back of this bikini top pop and the fact that this suit reverses to solid black with neon straps is such a bonus.

It quickly became a favorite of ours too but then came the disappointment – after 3 months of weekly, sometimes biweekly, washes the neon had faded to banana yellow! While we are not unfamiliar with fading – some is expected, especially with lots of washes and in households that use powerful detergents and stain removers such as OxiClean – this fading was definitely more than we were comfortable with.

So we started the search for a neon fabric that would stay neon. We tested a lot of fabrics from all over the world and our friend Jaymi finally connected us with  one that stood all of our tests – extended exposure to salt, chlorine, sun, and OxiClean (in our experience the worst offender in the fading department). We order this new fabric from Italy and we started using it exclusively in late summer 2015.

We reproduced the  Huntington Black/Mexican Blanket bikini with this neon and not only replaced the ones in our drawers with the fade resistant version, but are also offering to replace our customers free of charge! If you have one with banana yellow straps contact us at info@pepperswimwear.com!

xx Sibylle

*Please note that while the straps are fade-resistant the neon in the print will still fade a little.