Fab 40: Le Mont St Michel Fashion

France

From a confidential brand first launched in Japan, Le Mont Saint Michel became, in just a few seasons, a reference from New York to Milan and Hong-Kong. Founded in 1913, the iconic French family-owned business was something of a sleeping beauty when Alexandre Milan, the 30 year-old son of a textile industrialist, decided to give the brand a twist.

A fan of the Smiths, Blondie and American Graffiti, Alexandre soon turned Le Mont Saint Michel into an edgy label proudly facing its traditional heritage. 'It’s a bit like when you have to wear a strict British uniform and your only wish is to subvert it with style to make it your own,' Alexandre Milan explains. With a retro rock attitude, Alexandre constantly digs into the archives to revive jacquard prints and Normand blazons. Reinventing knitwear, he gives it a lurex finish, electric colours, and an emphasis on graphic prints and structured cuts.

Created in the family-owned Chateau de Monthorin, near the Mont Saint-Michel bay, the collections capitalise on the secular tradition of state-of-the-art knitwear in the atelier once run by Alexandre’s great grand-mother. Installed steps away from the fashionable Etienne Marcel neighbourhood, their first Parisian boutique mixes contemporary lines with a vintage rock feel.

www.lemontsaintmichel.fr

20 October 2009 | Fashion