Revive our heritage
From Pic Saint Loup to the Cévennes, there is a land of rocky garrigue where thyme springs with modest flowers, in the shade of mulberry trees which were used to feed silkworms.
In the golden age of silk, peasants wore a moucadou del col ("neck scarf" in Occitan).
1095
The Legend of Saint Loup
Summer 1095. Lady Renaude wants to marry off her sons Loup, Guiral, and Clair. All three brothers fall in love with the same woman, Irène. Undecided, she promises her heart to the one who proves the bravest during the Crusade.
When the three knights return from the Holy Land laden with treasure, they encounter a long funeral procession. Irene has died of love. Inconsolable, they decide to live as hermits atop three mountains after giving away their riches.
Loup, returning with silk from Orient and mysterious seeds, offers them to his friends from the Cévennes. They meticulously study the worms that hatch from them and their cocoons.
On each anniversary of Irene's death, the brothers light a large fire in her memory. The years pass and, one by one, they cease to illuminate Mont Saint-Clair, the Rocher de Saint Guiral and the Pic Saint-Loup.
1853
The Golden Age of Silk
From the 13th to the 19th century, many peasant households in the South of France raised silkworms as a supplementary income. In 1853, France produced 26,000 tons of silk, half of which came from the Cévennes region up to Pic Saint Loup.
Then production ceased. First, a worm disease, cured by Pasteur. Then, competition from nylon, followed by offshoring. Thousands of jobs vanished in silence.
French silk disappeared.
2025
The resurrection of silk
The legacy of French silk hangs by a thread. Yet all it takes is two butterflies in love. Before dying, the female Bombyx lays 500 eggs, which will become silkworms fed on white mulberry leaves. Their 500 cocoons, once unwound, spun, and woven, produce a scarf.
This resurrection of our heritage is orchestrated by a passionate silkworm breeder and a social entrepreneur from the Pic Saint-Loup region. The art of silk is being revived with excellence, from the mulberry trees to the silk scarves.
In 2025, SAINT LOUP produced the first French silk scarves since the last century. Within days, the first 300 numbered copies sold out.
Committed partners
SAINT LOUP relies on allies.
The first partners are Cévennes En Soie and Michel Costa, Akté Services and Samuel Hervé, REAL Promotion and Guillaume Herrero, ESG Luxe and Julien Blanc, Barbara Reihle.
The 300 supporters of the launch of the first capsule of numbered scarves include Pierre Pageot, Antonia Dobonyi, Françoise Durrieu, Sven-Michel Lourié, Amanda Dharma, Valérie Rmbd, Matias Bonijol, George-André Lopez, PE Julien, Claudia Enrech, Joel Cuartero, François Huault, Chekeba Hachemi, Geneviève Maury, Ghislaine Bascou, Christine Chavoutier, Bernadette Weber, Thomas Fouchault, Boudoumu, Pascale Baussant.