Saint James is a French knitwear house founded in 1850 in the Normandy village of the same name, a few miles from Mont-Saint-Michel, when mayor Leon Legallais built a spinning mill to weave and dye wool from sheep grazed on the local salt marshes. It launched its first garment - the Breton fisherman's sweater, or chandail - in 1889, a densely knit, near-waterproof wool pullover that became the uniform of the French Navy in 1858 and of the Terre-Neuvas cod fishermen. Refocused on the registered 'Vrai Pull Marin' in the 1950s under Julien Bonte and later his son Bernard, the house added woven shirting and trousers, began exporting to Japan in 1980 and was bought out by its own employees in 1990 to keep production in France. The mariniere went on to be worn by Picasso, Audrey Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot and Kate Moss, and Saint James still holds the Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant label for its living French craftsmanship.