SAINT JAMES, a certified French Living Heritage Company
La etiqueta Empresa del Patrimonio Vivo la conceden los prefectos regionales. El examen de las solicitudes lo realiza la Agencia Francesa de la Artesanía y el Patrimonio Vivo, bajo la supervisión de un comité de expertos.
La empresa debe poseer activos económicos específicos. Debe poseer equipos, herramientas o máquinas de técnicas poco comunes y/o derechos de propiedad industrial y/o ejecutar un proceso activo de creación e innovación.
La empresa que también debe poseer conocimientos técnicos poco comunes, dominar técnicas de fabricacióntradicionales o muy técnicas, y/o formar internamente a los empleados, en particular a los aprendices, en una experiencia que no es accesible en el curso clásico del sector.
In SAINT JAMES' case, the label was awarded to recognize the raccoutreuses' profession, aka mending experts, and employing workers collectively possessing excellent savoir-faire, including a creative or innovative dimension.
Por último, la empresa debe llevarestablecidadurante mucho tiempo en el mismo territorio geográfico y/o tener un nombre o marca conocidos, y/o llevar a cabo un enfoque de responsabilidad social.
Diferentes sectores de actividad pueden solicitar el sello de Empresa del Patrimonio Vivo, incluyendo oficios como la industria, la gastronomía, las artes y el sector cultural.
SAINT JAMES was awarded the Living Heritage Company label in 2012. Heir to the first spinning mill founded in the town of Saint-James in 1850 by Léon Legallais, the company has been established in the region for more than 130 years, thus qualifying for one of the criteria required to obtain the label.
The unique know-how developed by all the craftsmen working for the company serves to manufacture quality products every day, with an extremely high level of care.
SAINT JAMES employs knitting engineers, seamstresses, and stitchers with great expertise for the making of its clothes, which is sometimes only possible to be acquired in-house, after training for almost two years in particular for the raccoutrage profession. Remeshing, or remaillage, is also a specific artisanal knitting skill that defines the brand.
As a result, the company enables this rare knowledge to give life to exceptional products and continue to exist in France and internationally.
This award, Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant, and these three letters, EPV, perfectly summarize SAINT JAMES's identity, history, and raison d'être.
"E" as a company but also as a crew (“Equipage” in French): all the members of this crew, all the people who work for the SAINT JAMES company every day, are linked by a shared vision, values, and heritage.
"P" for heritage (“Patrimoine” in French), to designate both the know-how and the interpersonal skills of a company which, in more than a century and a half, has never given up on authenticity and high standards.
"V," finally, for life (“Vie” in French), because the SAINT JAMES brand is constantly on the move, combining heritage and creativity, legacy and modernity.
