Up there in the mountains… the history of the sandal industry was introduced to Saint Laurent de Cerdans around 1860.

In a small village nestled on the slopes of the Haut-Vallespir, the Sans & Garderie factory was founded in 1897. In this factory, over 300 workers braided the rope and wove the canvas used to make espadrilles. The raw materials (jute, hemp, cotton, linen) arrived in their unprocessed form and were entirely transformed on site. The beginning of the twentieth century marked the golden age of the sandal industry. Its remarkable success, combined with unique ancestral know-how and advances in machinery, quickly allowed it to dominate sandal making throughout Catalonia and far beyond. The great tradition of Catalan canvas was born.
Catalan linen had now earned its stripes.

Françoise and Henri Quinta, both of Catalan origin, bought the factory.

Rebranded Les Toiles du Soleil (The Fabrics of the Sun), the factory, painted in the Catalan colors of "sanc i or" (blood and gold), resumed operations under the watchful eye of two young seamstresses in traditional dress, setting a table—the company's new logo. Fabric samples pasted onto sheets of cardboard yellowed with age, hundreds of fabric references, thousands of documents archived for over a century by Sans & Garcerie: Les Toiles du Soleil revived Catalan weaving. Success quickly became international. The Catalan stripes traveled the world with the opening of numerous boutiques, notably in Japan and the USA.

Les Toiles du Soleil preserves within its walls in Cayrou an inexhaustible tradition of know-how, a guarantee of quality.

The time-honored techniques of our warpers and weavers, the traditional manufacturing processes still used today, make this company an exceptional place, a true repository of industrial heritage that has completely disappeared elsewhere in France. This unique expertise was recognized by the French government in 1999 with the awarding of the "Living Heritage Company" label, which distinguishes French companies with outstanding artisanal and industrial know-how.