Le Mont Saint Michel was founded in 1913 in Pontorson, Normandy, by brothers Louis and Henri Ariès, who opened a workshop making rugged workwear for the region's laborers, craftsmen, and farmers. Through the 1920s to the 1970s it became known for durable pieces like heavy moleskine jackets, school smocks, and corduroy trousers. It was revived in 1998 by Alexandre Milan, a descendant of the family behind the knitwear house Tricotages de l'Aa, and its design studio still works out of the historic Monthorin site in Brittany, drawing on the family's archives.