It was back in 1904. The little village of Megève was still a long way from what it is today. Far from its image of luxurious Epinal, it lived at the rhythm of the work in the fields, rather cut off from the world. That was the year that little Armand Allard was born. He dreamed of becoming a surgeon, but he was unlucky and polio left him lame in one leg, and threw his plans upside down. He then discovered his craft as a tailor in the workshop of his uncle, Antoine, and rapidly became an expert in wielding the scissors. His wife, Julia, said, "He treated everything very seriously, he liked to do things properly." A typical trait of the Allard family, which has never departed from good taste and demanding quality...

Armand began to make a name for himself in the area of Megève. He opened his own workshop in 1926, and in 1930 he signalled the entry of skiing into modern times with the creation of the stretch ski-pants. A aerodynamic line, legs and seat smoothly sheathed, elasticated strap under the foot... Nothing less than a revolution in the practice of the sport inspired by Hilaire Morand, the uncle of the future skiing champion Emile Allais. While people were skiing in the era of the "Norwegian" trousers (looking a bit like the trousers Tintin wears) which were pretty uncomfortable, Hilaire Morand was looking for more practical, more technical, ski-pants. Armand created the stretch ski-pants, Emile was his ambassador, and took the World Downhill ski championships in 1937 with his "jump pants", the famous "pantalon sauteur". Later, the ski-pants made their way around the world, taken up again in every period by the greatest couturiers, in every style and every kind of material, on the snow and in the town.