By Liz Alderman Violette Franchi
As fabric spooled out of a bank of knitting machines in a flare of blue-and-white stripes, workers at the Saint James clothing factory in France鈥檚 Normandy region stacked them into piles and cut along patterns to make the company鈥檚 iconic Breton sailor鈥檚 shirt, worn by celebrities and adored by fans worldwide.
Luc Les茅n茅cal, the company鈥檚 chief executive, surveyed an enormous workroom splashed with a rainbow of yarns. Seamstresses had recently put the finishing touches on 50,000 striped shirts and sweaters to fill orders for American stores like Nordstrom and J. Crew.
But his plans to ship for the fall retail season have been thwarted by President Trump鈥檚 up-and-down tariff threats. Instead of loading the merchandise into cargo planes, Mr. Les茅n茅cal has parked his entire U.S. export in the company鈥檚 warehouse, where it will sit until Wednesday, the deadline Mr. Trump has set for Europe to come up with a deal or face tariffs of up to 50 percent.
鈥淭his is yo-yo politics we鈥檝e been dealing with,鈥 Mr. Les茅n茅cal said, gesturing around a factory the size of three football fields, where 300 longtime employees turn out 1.5 million shirts, sweaters, scarves and coats a year. 鈥淚f we don鈥檛 have visibility, we can鈥檛 move forward.鈥