The Baie des Caps Atelier: Where Authenticity Meets Excellence

label EPV

Living Heritage Company

Our sweaters are knitted in Beaussais-sur-Mer, on the Côte d’Émeraude in Brittany, by a team of six craftspeople. Not in a design office: in a workshop where the machines run, where you can hear the knit being made, and which you can come and visit.

In May 2025, the French State recognised this craft by awarding us the Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant label, which distinguishes French companies holding rare expertise. It has to be renewed, it has to be earned, and it cannot be bought.

See our sailor sweaters

The knit comes first

A sailor sweater does not hold up because of its design: it holds up because of its knit. Ours is tight and dense, made in gauge 8. That is what stops the wind, and that is what gives it its weight — 660 to 780 grams in size M depending on the model, up to a kilo in the largest sizes.

The yarn arrives already dyed from Biella Yarn, in Biella, Italy, the capital of combed wool. We do not dye: we knit. Each panel comes off the machine, then passes through the hands of a seamstress who assembles it, puts it together and finishes it.

The 100% virgin wool sweaters

Six pairs of hands

There are six of us in the workshop, and every sweater passes through several pairs of hands: the knitting, the overlock assembly, the shoulder reinforcement, the ribbing, the label. Then the inspection, by hand, piece by piece, before it goes on the shelf.

When a piece fails inspection, it is not sold. Nor does it go in the skip — see below what becomes of it.

Come and see the workshop

Passing it on

In 2019, Lucie and Geoffroy de Pinieux took over the workshop. Their first task was not a commercial one: it was to train. Young knitters joined the workshop and learned the trade from those who had been practising it for years.

That is the only way to make a craft last: pass it on while it is still there. We also work with a sheltered workshop (ESAT) for embroidery and personalised accessories.

Our story, from 1986 to today

Nothing is wasted

A knitted panel with a dropped stitch will never become a sweater. For years, those panels went to the skip. Today they set off again.

They travel to the Charente, to Rondinaud, the last charentaise slipper maker in the department, who turns them into slippers for us — from our own knit. Other offcuts become hot-water bottle covers, pouches, cases and bomber jackets. And we work with Gants Mailles on gloves made of the same material.

Every piece is unique, quite simply because the flawless areas of a panel are never in the same place.

See the slippers