Patrick Grant is one of the most compelling figures in British fashion. He is a Savile Row tailor, television personality, author, and vocal advocate for sustainable, ethical clothing manufacture. Best known to many as the warm, sharp-suited judge on BBC One’s The Great British Sewing Bee, Grant’s career spans bespoke tailoring, ready-to-wear, social enterprise, and — most recently — publishing. His story is one of reinvention, both of historic British institutions and of himself.
Here are ten things you may not know about one of the most interesting men in British fashion.
10 Things You Didn’t Know About Patrick Grant
1. He was born in Edinburgh and competed in corridor walk-offs at boarding school
Patrick Grant was born in Edinburgh on 1 May 1972. He grew up in the city’s Morningside district before attending boarding school at Barnard Castle School in County Durham. There, he found an early outlet for his sartorial instincts — entertaining classmates by organising corridor walk-offs to decide who had the best shoes and trousers. It was, perhaps, an early hint of what was to come.
2. He was a serious sportsman and played rugby at international youth level
Grant was a keen and capable athlete during his school and university years. He competed in athletics, cross-country running, tennis, swimming, and rowing. Most notably, he played rugby at under-19 level for Scotland before a shoulder injury cut short that particular ambition. Sport, and the clothing that goes with it, has remained a recurring influence on his design work.
3. He studied science and engineering before doing an MBA at Oxford
Grant has no formal training in fashion design. Instead, he studied materials science at the University of Leeds before spending several years working in the technology sector — at companies including Bookham Technology, BICC, and Corning. He then completed an MBA at Oxford’s Saïd Business School in 2005. It was while studying at Oxford that he discovered Norton & Sons was for sale — and everything changed.
4. He saved Norton & Sons by selling his house, his car, and borrowing from his grandmother
In December 2005, Grant purchased Norton & Sons — a Savile Row institution founded in 1821 — for a sum he described as less than the price of a car. To raise the money, he sold his house, his car, and everything else he owned, borrowed from a bank, and accepted loans from friends, Oxford classmates, and his grandmother. He turned the failing business around over several years, rebuilding its reputation and connecting it to a new generation of customers. However, the pandemic took its toll. Grant sold his majority stake following COVID-19 and today retains only a minority interest in the company.
5. He revived two historic brands — and both were eventually closed by the pandemic
In 2009, Grant relaunched E. Tautz & Sons — a label originally founded in 1867 — as a ready-to-wear menswear brand. The house had genuine heritage: Edward Tautz invented the Knickerbocker, counted Winston Churchill among his patrons, and was a sporting tailor to European nobility. Under Grant, E. Tautz won the Menswear Designer of the Year award at the British Fashion Awards in 2010. He also relaunched Hammond & Co., a diffusion line sold exclusively through Debenhams. Both labels were closed in 2021 — E. Tautz due to the financial impact of the pandemic, and Hammond & Co. when Debenhams shuttered all of its stores the same year.
6. He founded Community Clothing — a social enterprise making affordable British clothes
In 2016, Grant founded Community Clothing in Blackburn, Lancashire. The social enterprise works with a network of around 45 British factories to produce affordable, durable clothing staples — made well, priced fairly, and designed to last. The project is the clearest expression of Grant’s anti-fast-fashion philosophy. He acquired textile manufacturer Cookson & Clegg in 2015 to support the venture, saving the 160-year-old business from closure. Community Clothing is now his primary commercial focus.
7. He has been a Great British Sewing Bee judge since the very first series
Grant joined The Great British Sewing Bee as a judge when it launched on BBC Two in 2013. The show has grown significantly since then — moving to BBC One in 2020 and attracting a much larger audience. Grant judges alongside fellow panellist Esme Young, assessing contestants across pattern, alteration, and fitting challenges. He has become one of the most recognisable faces of the programme and a genuine ambassador for craft and making in the UK.
8. He wrote a book challenging the entire premise of the fashion industry
In May 2024, Grant published Less: Stop Buying So Much Rubbish — How Having Fewer, Better Things Can Make Us Happier (HarperCollins). The book argues directly against overconsumption and fast fashion. It is a striking position for a man who works in fashion, and Grant has been consistent and outspoken about it. He also published The Savile Row Suit: The Art of Hand Tailoring on Savile Row (Gestalten) the same year. Together, the two books reflect both sides of his career — the philosophical and the practical.
9. He was appointed Chancellor of Queen Margaret University in 2025
In May 2025, Grant was installed as Chancellor of Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh — a fitting appointment for a man who grew up in the city and has spent much of his career championing skills, craftsmanship, and ethical industry. He had previously been made an Honorary Professor at Glasgow Caledonian University in 2013, elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2016, and awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Heriot-Watt University’s School of Textiles and Design in 2017.
10. Esquire named him the Most Stylish Man in the World
Esquire magazine named Patrick Grant the Most Stylish Man in the World — a title that sits comfortably on a man who regularly appears on best-dressed lists and whose personal style is, by any measure, exceptional. What makes him genuinely interesting, however, is that he uses that platform to argue against buying more clothes. In 2025, he told the Guardian: “The whole idea of fashion with a big ‘F’ is a deliberate act to encourage people to buy things they don’t need.” For a man of his influence to say that — and mean it — is rare.
