Family Legacy
Award winning cashmere for kids, Mika & Milo was born out of a rich history in textiles: our founder's family have been working with natural fibres for well over a century. It started with Aiko Stevenson's Great-Grandfather who ran his own woollen mill producing fine Scottish Tweeds on the outskirts of Edinburgh.
By the time her father joined the team, their own brand of Macnab Tweeds was sold throughout the US, Europe and Asia. When her father joined the firm, he added cashmere to the mix.
In the past, Scottish cashmere was the finest in the world. However, as labour costs rose in the UK, it started to become too expensive to produce and unable to compete with the meteoric rise of China.
Fast forward 100 years, and most of the world’s top-grade cashmere now comes from the blustery plains of Inner Mongolia where the frigid winter cold helps the goats to grow a fine inner coat in order to keep them warm: temperatures drop as low as 40 degrees celsius in the depths of December.
But, in the summer, temperatures soar over 30 degrees celsius so the goats are sheared in order to keep them cool when they no longer need this extra coat. And, it's this fine inner coat which is used to make the most delicious cashmere jumpers.
However, did you know that one goat only produces enough yarn to make one baby sized jumper a year? And, that's why a good quality cashmere sweater can be rather pricey.
How Our Founder Set Up Mika & Milo