Founded by Primo Zélanti in 1956 in Digoin, in southern Burgundy, this small family business manufactures traditional work clothes and everyday garments reminiscent of bygone eras. His son, Jean-Charles Zélanti, who took over the reins of the factory in 1988, liked to say: "My father wanted to trademark 'L'Agriculteur' (The Farmer), but it was already taken, so he chose 'Le Laboureur' (The Ploughman)." The factory owes much of its renown to the production of traditional work clothes (largeots, coltins) in velvet, thick moleskin, or linen/cotton blends, which the journeyman guilds required their apprentices—carpenters, stonemasons, and joiners—to wear, in strict accordance with the time-honored craftsmanship.

Today, after a change of management, the family business, with around thirty employees, continues to produce quality clothing made in the old style in Digoin, without changing course.