.jpeg)
A long, long time ago, in a small village in Brittany lived an old man named Augustin Guethenoc.
Originally from Josselin, he had settled in a village on the Armorican coast, and had spent a large part of his life on the water. The perfect symbiosis between this old man and the sea was such that all his friends had nicknamed him: Augustin the sailor.
He often went out for weeks at a time to fish at sea. He was very brave, nothing would stop him, neither the cold, nor the wind, nor the storms, nor the threat of pirates who sometimes attacked other boats... But after all, what did he possess that could arouse covetousness, apart perhaps from his old rigging and his cargo of freshly caught fish?
No, Augustin's main wealth was his values: courage, loyalty, friendship, the code of honour, a sense of family.
He had found love. His wife Anne filled him with it. But he was still missing something. Sometimes, after a long journey, Augustin felt tired, his legs were a bit heavy and he always complained about having holes in his socks.
His wife Anne, an outstanding seamstress, began to knit him socks with reinforced toes and heels and using long-fibre combed cotton for maximum softness. Then she began to weave the best fabrics in the finest cottons and wools, to make sailors' hats and a short cap, which she called "miki", without a visor, reaching above the ears, so that it could never fly away in the first gust and so that Augustin could always listen to the wind.
With such socks on his feet, protected by a cotton interlock sailor's cap, and a miki cap tightly screwed on his head, Augustine the sailor felt so comfortable and protected that his courage, strength and self-confidence were increased tenfold.
And, above all, his elegance did not go unnoticed and aroused the admiration of all. In all the ports of call where the wind carried him, in all the ports, sailors and non sailors alike wanted to dress like Augustine. In every bistro in the port, he was the talk of the town.
"Anne, would you like to knit more socks and weave more sailors' socks so that my friends could also be protected so elegantly? "Augustin asked his wife one day.
Anne set to work and the long winter evenings by the fire were busy knitting, weaving, sewing.... She also added motifs representing boats, marine objects used by Augustin, but also the birds he met, the fish he caught, the sea, a boat, the value of a friend he met, the emblem of a region he crossed, nature, an animal.
The wind did the rest...
Thanks to its stopovers in Breton ports but also in Augustin's favourite maritime regions, the Celtic Nations, the Vendée, the Basque Country, Normandy, the North and South, it was a total success: all the inhabitants were tearing off their socks and clothes. They were on sale in maritime counters, shipchandlers, quality marine clothing shops, and marine fashion was launched....
From century to century, from generation to generation, the descendants of Augustin Guethenoc passed on this legend, and at the end of the last century, the legend became reality. In 1996 the French clothing brand Augustin was created, as well as the eponymous trusted house, the sarl Augustin.
Today, Augustin socks, accessories, and sailor's clothing are worn by elegant, demanding men and women who want to wear solid and comfortable clothes. They, in turn, want to follow in the footsteps of and pay tribute to Augustin the sailor, to be the defenders of the traditions and values of the maritime regions.