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Patrick Grant is an outspoken advocate for radical change in the fashion industry. His campaigning brand Community Clothing supports local clothing and textile manufacturers across the UK.
He is a regular on TV and radio, best known for his role on the hit BBC series The Great British Sewing Bee. His book Less was published by HarperCollins in May 2024 and was an instant Sunday Times bestseller.
What’s the last treat you bought for yourself?
A bar of fancy handmade almond nougat.
Classic Torrone nougat
Where do you buy your food from?
Bread from Ambry Bakery, cheese from Courtyard Dairy, milk from Lawkland Hall Farm (all Austwick, North Yorkshire). The rest I get from Booths, usually in Settle.
Courtyard Dairy cheese
What’s the best present you’ve given?
Hand-embroidered hankies for my dad (he still had them in the drawer by his bed when he died).
… and the best present you’ve received?
My ex made me a beautiful yellow glazed vase and matching bowl, pinched by hand and stippled under the glaze, with my initials stamped into the side. They sit on my desk with pencils and bits and bobs in.
What’s your favourite online store?
Niwaki garden tools: absolutely everything is perfection.
Niwaki collection
What’s your favourite bricks-and-mortar shop?
I love Hatchards on Piccadilly in London: beautiful, and the art book department is unbeatable.
What’s the gadget you use most often?
I’m not sure you’d call it a gadget but my Bialetti espresso maker is used daily. At the moment I’m using my Niwaki pruning saw a lot, too.
Bialetti coffee maker, three-cup
Moku pruning saw
What’s the purchase you regret the most?
I’m pretty good at buying things with a fair amount of care so can’t think of anything I really regret buying. But I regret not buying a Grayson Perry vase and a Craigie Aitchison oil painting in the early 90s when I had the chance.
What’s the thing(s) you get delivered?
I never get anything new delivered. I never use Amazon, and the only deliveries I’d get would be from eBay.
What would you buy with £20 – and £200?
I don’t really need anything so would probably spend on some Old English Hunt marmalade and Royal Blend loose-leaf tea from Fortnum & Mason.
Old English Hunt marmalade
Royal Blend loose-leaf tea
What’s your ‘saved search’ on eBay/Vinted?
Absolutely not telling (I use eBay and the Saleroom a lot to find specific things).
What item do you buy on repeat?
Derwent pencils, still made in Keswick in the Lake District and used every day.
Derwent pencils
How do you make your coffee at home?
I buy Locomotion blend beans from Railtown Coffee in Darlington, which I grind in a 30-year-old Krups 50 grinder. I use a Bialetti stove top espresso maker, and I heat and froth milk by hand using a balloon whisk and a small steel milk pan.
Locomotion coffee beans
What’s your biggest splurge?
A really big kilim rug I bought from a dealer in Dorset.
And what everyday item do you scrimp on?
I’d rather go without something than buy a bad version of it.
And what’s your greatest vintage find?
I buy a lot of antiques, but I think my best find would be a pair of 17th century wooden pitchforks. They’re hanging on the wall in my hall.
For more, read How I Shop with Nussaibah Younis and How I Shop with Ben Fogle
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