Neo 1

The neat neoprene narrative:
The photos and the comments describe how I arrived at the choice of fabric for my Zam crop top and pants. The fabric is a tricot Lycra Neoprene Nylon material with the lycra being custom dyed.

First, I tryed to match the color and sheen of the lycra to the pantone color (given to me by a friend) of the actual costume when it was in Australia's Magic of Myth tour. The closest choice was sh-2 (top row, second from left). It was the correct sheen but the purple was too light.

Then, concerned about thickness, this proved to be a viable jumbo lycra/spandex option. (Option #3) It was white and could be dyed the correct pantone color. But the fibers were not woven exactly the same as sh-2 which was closer to the actual costume. (Although, option#3 did have a nice sheen). Approximately 1.0mm thick.

This was perfect thickness 1.5mm total, but required heat sublimation dyeing which is not a very good process.(Option #1) The dye would bleed. And, the neoprene company's white lycra did not provide the correct sheen.

This alternate neoprene company provided neoprene at 2.0mm to 3.0 total thickness which was a tad thick especially for sewing the edges. But, this option #2 seemed to be the best fit neoprene company, because they were able to laminate dyed lycra(a white version of sh-2 dyed) from the lycra company onto their neoprene, and leave the lycra extending over their neoprene to sew the edges without being overly thick.

Giving the dyeing company the reference paper swatches from Australia and the matching them to their lab dips, the resulting color that was chosen by the TDH members and DCB was the swatch “D.”