Like most people I knew of Patrick Grant from The Great British Sewing Bee and an episode of Desert Island Discs, but it was hearing him speak at the 2025 Greenbelt Festival which convinced me to buy this book, and I am so glad I did.
Part of the joy of this book is the way that history, autobiography and personal manifesto are woven together to make an interesting and challenging read. It makes a strong case to change both the things we consume and how we consume them for the good of people and the planet. The book is divided into four parts: Want; Quality: Work; and Less.
The first section summarises how society, economies and capitalism developed. As you might expect there is a focus on clothing including the development of brands, consumerism and fast fashion.
Patrick trained as a design engineer so he is well qualified to explore various dimensions of quality including design, material and manufacture He reminds us that quality is both tangible and intangible and he clearly explains how the advent of mass production and planned obsolescence contributed to lower quality and increased consumption.
Consumerism continues to evolve in the twenty-first century, but one of the clear messages of the book is that we do have a choice about how and where we spend our money. One way is to challenge online fashion retailing which has concentrated wealth and power in the hands of a few big organisations who have no commitment to jobs, location or workforce, just profit. Patrick’s ‘purchase test’ for garments is part of his scathing critique of fast fashion: if you aren’t going to wear it at least 100 times don’t buy it. It is a reminder of the need to distinguish between need and want.
The book is no set of empty platitudes. It includes multiple examples of how Patrick has put his principles and beliefs into action. He bought the tailors Norton and Sons on Saville Row in 2005 because it ‘ticked all the boxes’ – hand-made items, well-cut clothes and a business with heritage and history. A BBC documentary on Saville Row in 2006 was actually the start of his television career. There is an insight into working on The Great British Sewing Bee, and the story of creating a brand of handmade ready-to-wear garments which sold for several years in Debenhams. Then in 2015 he bought a garment factory in Blackburn with the seed of an idea which became his current business Community Clothing.
The message of the final section can be hard to hear for relatively affluent consumers: we have too much; we need to take stock of what we own and what we wear; then change our habits to buy less but better. By applying these principles of less, local and better we can improve the economy, society and the environment, and there are practical suggestions about how to do this.
We can choose to increase the amount of making and doing, repairing and reusing through repair cafes and sharing skills. We can consume less of higher quality goods, say no to more stuff, and no to growth for the sake of it. This will be better for us and better for the planet. You may not be able to afford many of the clothes Patrick makes here in the UK, but you can certainly consider how his principles apply to you.
It is no quick read, running to 350 pages, but all in all it is an engaging and powerful manifesto advocating change for the common good. It has convinced me to operate a one-in one-out policy in future for all my clothes purchases and to consider sustainability and buying better for as many of my other purchases as I can.
I finish with his call to action: to teach children and grandchildren practical skills including how to repair things, remembering that there is vital knowledge in well-executed manual work.