Brandon-Based 'Lavish Threads' Specializes in Alpaca Wool Offerings

"Handmade in the Andean region of Ecuador" is the basis of Lavish Threads, a business Consuelo Mikel operates out of her home in Brandon with textile made with alpaca wool.

A native of South America, Mikel said she has family members still there who work with the wool from alpaca, a long-haired domesticated mammal related to the llama and valued for its wool.

The textile comes to her from South America and here in Brandon she finishes the one-of-a-kind pieces for sale out of her home and at various events and fairs throughout the area.

"They send me the material and we make the garments," Consuelo Mikel said, discussing a range of scarfs on display Sept. 17, at the First Annual Lobstah' Festival fundraiser at the Winthrop Pole Barn in Riverview.

"I've seen how they make it [the textile] all my life," said Consuelo Mikel, who started Lavish Threads seven years ago.

Alpaca, she added, "is one of the best fibers in the world. It's hypoallergenic, it doesn't stretch or shring and it has thermodynamic properties."

That means, she added, that in cold temperatures, the textile "keeps your body heat in, and in hot temperatures, it doesn't overheat."

Mikel said she doesn't have a web site to display her wares because each piece is unique. She keeps prices down by finishing the pieces here and she helps her customers select a piece by considering their color complex, the color of their hair "and what kind of life they live."

As Mikel put it, there are pieces for the "very elegant, and for the very informal."

For information about Lavish Threads, call 813-684-0730.