Patrick James Grant FRSA (born 1 May 1972) is a Scottish[4] clothier, businessman, television personality and author who is currently the director of Community Clothing and textile manufacturer Cookson & Clegg.
He took a gap year after school and played for West Hartlepool R.F.C.,[16] although his rugby career was cut short by a shoulder injury.
[20] Following graduation Grant relocated to the United States where he worked as a ski instructor,[11] as a counsellor at a summer camp in Santa Cruz, California, as a nanny, a landscape gardener, and a model agent.
[21] He returned to Britain in 1995 to take up a career in marketing, first at cable-makers BICC and Corning, before moving to optical components manufacturer Bookham Technology in 2000.
[22] From 2004, Grant studied for an MBA degree, funded by Bookham, at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, where he was a member of New College.
[3][25] The company had attempted to diversify by selling guns and offering sporting tours; Grant re-concentrated the business on tailoring.
[28] Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Grant sold the majority stake of Norton & Sons to James Sleater, owner of Savile Row tailor the Cad & the Dandy, and Ian Meiers.
[3] The label tended to be more experimental than the Norton line, with Grant explaining that with Tautz "We don't need to be wedded too much to the idea of the tailored suit.
[7] In April 2013, it was announced that Grant would be relaunching the Norton subsidiary Hammond & Co. as a diffusion line available exclusively at British clothing retailer Debenhams.
Throughout the later part of the 20th century Cookson & Clegg were a major supplier of military outerwear, legwear and other sewn products to the British Army and other armed forces.
Today the firm manufactures outerwear, in both traditional woven and modern technical fabrics, jeans, and chinos for some UK clothing brands.
[35] Grant is best known by the general public for his work as a judge on the BBC television series The Great British Sewing Bee.
In 2018, he was named co-chair of the Prince of Wales' charity Future Textiles, an organisation working to sustain skills and create jobs in the UK's garment making industry.
[38] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Grant moved from London to Lancashire in March 2020 to run his factory in Blackburn, where he was making personal protective equipment (PPE) for the NHS.