Patrick Grant | Less
Sun 24 Nov 2024 | 10:00am - 11:00am
Join fashion designer, Sewing Bee judge and founder of the social enterprise Community Clothing Patrick Grant, to hear hispowerful case against the global fashion industry. Loving clothes but despairing of a broken global system, Patrick considers the crisis of consumption and quality in fashion, and how we might make ourselves happier by rediscovering the joy of living with fewer, better-quality things.
We used to care a lot about our clothes. We didn’t have many but those we had were important to us, we’d cherish them, repair them and pass them on. And making them provided fulfilling work for millions of skilled people locally. Today the average person has nearly five times as many clothes as they did just 50 years ago, last year 100 billion garments were produced worldwide, most made from oil, 30% of which were not even sold, and the equivalent of one bin lorry full of clothing is dumped in landfill or burned every single second. Our wardrobes are full to bursting with clothes we never wear so why do we keep buying more?
In conversation with Alex Clark
Venue: Cambridge Union
Duration: 1 hour
Choose your tickets:
Author Biography
With a career in fashion spanning nearly two decades Patrick Grant has a lot to say about our clothing, who makes it and how it’s made. He is a regular on television and radio as a commentator on the clothing and textile industries and is best known as a judge on the BBC’s Great British Sewing Bee. Patrick holds an honorary Doctorate from Heriot Watt University, is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is in the Business of Fashion 500 index of the most influential people in global fashion. In 2016 he launched Community Clothing, a social enterprise which supports thousands of UK jobs through making and selling affordable high- quality clothing.
Chair
Alex Clark is a broadcaster and journalist, who writes for many publications including the Guardian, the Observer, and the Times Literary Supplement. She is a co-host on the Graham Norton Book Club for Audible and hosts the TLS podcast. She is a professional chairperson and appears all over the UK at literary festivals & events. Alex is a festival honorary patron.
