Patrick Grant

Patrick Grant has a lot to say about clothes; how many we buy, how we value them, what they’re made from, and importantly who made them and where. His campaigning clothes brand Community Clothing supports local clothing and textile manufacturers across the UK and Patrick is an outspoken advocate for radical change in the fashion and clothing industry, moving towards reduced consumption of higher quality goods, made to be circular and regenerative. His book Less, published in 2024 by Harper Collins, became an instant Sunday Times Bestseller.

Patrick’s career in clothing has spanned two decades, during which time he has rebuilt the Savile Row tailor Norton & Sons, relaunched E. Tautz, for which he won Menswear Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards, and built the most successful designer collaboration in Debenham’s history with Hammond & Co. He has worked with some of the world’s best known brands including Cartier, Rolls Royce, Lotus, BMW, Mercedes, The Macallan, Chivas Regal, Barbour, Christian Louboutin, and Alexander McQueen, and has been a consistent advocate for quality and craftsmanship.

Then in 2015 Patrick bought the ailing Blackburn clothing manufacturer Cookson & Clegg, saving the factory from closure. This got him thinking about the fate of the many other great UK textile and garment makers and how to secure their future and the future prosperity of the UK communities that those businesses support. The result of this thinking was Community Clothing, which was launched in 2016 and has since earned him widespread praise.

Patrick is a regular on TV and Radio. He is best known for his role on the hit BBC series The Great British Sewing Bee which was nominated for a BAFTA in 2022 and is now in its 11 th series. His BBC documentary Coronation Tailors: Fit for a King won a Royal Television Society Northern Ireland Award. Patrick has appeared on Desert Island Discs and has won both Celebrity Mastermind and The Weakest Link.

He is a columnist for the Financial Times, has written on diverse subjects for many titles including The Times, The Sun, The Daily Mail, Fantastic Man and GQ, and is the author of three books. Patrick has a degree in Materials Science & Engineering from Leeds, an MBA from Oxford, an honorary Doctorate from Heriot Watt, an honorary Fellowship from UCLan, is an honorary Professor at Glasgow Caledonian, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 2018 he gave a Ted Talk about the thinking behind Community Clothing. And he is an ambassador for The King’s Foundation, a charity which supports education activities for people of all ages across the UK.