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Patrick Grant (designer)
Patrick James Grant FRSA (born 1 May 1972) is a Scottish clothier, businessman, television personality and author who is currently the director of Community Clothing and textile manufacturer Cookson & Clegg. He is the former director of bespoke tailors Norton & Sons of Savile Row and E. Tautz & Sons clothing line. Since 2013, he has been a judge on the BBC One reality series The Great British Sewing Bee. In 2025, he was installed as the Chancellor of Edinburgh’s Queen Margaret University.
After taking over Norton & Sons in 2005, Grant has been credited with rejuvenating the once ailing business. He relaunched E. Tautz & Sons as a ready to wear label in 2009, for which he was awarded the Menswear Designer award at the British Fashion Awards in 2010.
Grant is a critic of the fashion industry, particularly the environmental damage caused by fast fashion and synthetic clothing. His book Less: Stop Buying So Much Rubbish — How Having Fewer, Better Things Can Make Us Happier was published by HarperCollins in May 2024.
Grant was born in Edinburgh, and raised in the city's Morningside district. His Musselburgh-born father, James (1940–2020), managed the pop band Marmalade before becoming an accountant at RMJM and mini rugby coach. His mother, Susan, worked for the University of Edinburgh. His maternal grandfather, Flt. Lt. Walter Henry Ewen FitzEarle of Rosskeen, was killed in action in the Second World War when his plane was shot down while flying for the Royal Air Force; Grant keeps his wardrobe trunk, which had previously belonged to his great-grandfather Walter FitzEarle, the bandmaster of the King's Own Scottish Borderers, in his design studio. His other grandfather worked as a yarn designer in Galashiels, Scottish Borders. He has a younger sister, Victoria, who works for his businesses.
Grant attended South Morningside Primary School, then Edinburgh Academy before joining Barnard Castle School as a boarding pupil. Grant explained that "My parents thought it would be better for me to be away from home. They have good friends who live not far from Barnard Castle and their two sons were there. So they knew the school and said it was good for rugby and I was mad on rugby." Whilst at Barnard Castle he represented Scotland at rugby union at U18 and U19 level. He took a gap year after school and played for West Hartlepool R.F.C., although his rugby career was cut short by a shoulder injury. Grant lists his early fashion influences as Barbour, Burberry, Hunter, Lyle & Scott and Pringle.
Grant completed a degree in materials science at the University of Leeds in 1994. He chose an engineering degree because of "a fascination with how things are made". His course included a year spent at the University of Orleans.
Following graduation Grant relocated to the United States where he worked as a ski instructor, as a counsellor at a summer camp in Santa Cruz, California, as a nanny, a landscape gardener, and a model agent. 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. 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. His thesis, completed in October 2005, concerned the regeneration of luxury fashion brands such as Burberry, and was titled "Is Burberry's formula for brand revitalisation replicable?".
Whilst at Saïd in 2005, Grant learned that Norton & Sons was being advertised for sale by the Granger family. To pursue the sale, he accepted voluntary redundancy from Bookham. He was surprised at how low the asking price was, commenting: "You could pay more for a car. We're not talking millions but hundreds of thousands of pounds." Grant was able to afford the business by selling his house, his car "and everything else" as well as borrowing from a bank and raising money from friends; two former Oxford classmates, friends from Leeds, his grandmother, and his former chief executive at Bookham. The deal was completed in December 2005.
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Patrick Grant (designer)
Patrick James Grant FRSA (born 1 May 1972) is a Scottish clothier, businessman, television personality and author who is currently the director of Community Clothing and textile manufacturer Cookson & Clegg. He is the former director of bespoke tailors Norton & Sons of Savile Row and E. Tautz & Sons clothing line. Since 2013, he has been a judge on the BBC One reality series The Great British Sewing Bee. In 2025, he was installed as the Chancellor of Edinburgh’s Queen Margaret University.
After taking over Norton & Sons in 2005, Grant has been credited with rejuvenating the once ailing business. He relaunched E. Tautz & Sons as a ready to wear label in 2009, for which he was awarded the Menswear Designer award at the British Fashion Awards in 2010.
Grant is a critic of the fashion industry, particularly the environmental damage caused by fast fashion and synthetic clothing. His book Less: Stop Buying So Much Rubbish — How Having Fewer, Better Things Can Make Us Happier was published by HarperCollins in May 2024.
Grant was born in Edinburgh, and raised in the city's Morningside district. His Musselburgh-born father, James (1940–2020), managed the pop band Marmalade before becoming an accountant at RMJM and mini rugby coach. His mother, Susan, worked for the University of Edinburgh. His maternal grandfather, Flt. Lt. Walter Henry Ewen FitzEarle of Rosskeen, was killed in action in the Second World War when his plane was shot down while flying for the Royal Air Force; Grant keeps his wardrobe trunk, which had previously belonged to his great-grandfather Walter FitzEarle, the bandmaster of the King's Own Scottish Borderers, in his design studio. His other grandfather worked as a yarn designer in Galashiels, Scottish Borders. He has a younger sister, Victoria, who works for his businesses.
Grant attended South Morningside Primary School, then Edinburgh Academy before joining Barnard Castle School as a boarding pupil. Grant explained that "My parents thought it would be better for me to be away from home. They have good friends who live not far from Barnard Castle and their two sons were there. So they knew the school and said it was good for rugby and I was mad on rugby." Whilst at Barnard Castle he represented Scotland at rugby union at U18 and U19 level. He took a gap year after school and played for West Hartlepool R.F.C., although his rugby career was cut short by a shoulder injury. Grant lists his early fashion influences as Barbour, Burberry, Hunter, Lyle & Scott and Pringle.
Grant completed a degree in materials science at the University of Leeds in 1994. He chose an engineering degree because of "a fascination with how things are made". His course included a year spent at the University of Orleans.
Following graduation Grant relocated to the United States where he worked as a ski instructor, as a counsellor at a summer camp in Santa Cruz, California, as a nanny, a landscape gardener, and a model agent. 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. 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. His thesis, completed in October 2005, concerned the regeneration of luxury fashion brands such as Burberry, and was titled "Is Burberry's formula for brand revitalisation replicable?".
Whilst at Saïd in 2005, Grant learned that Norton & Sons was being advertised for sale by the Granger family. To pursue the sale, he accepted voluntary redundancy from Bookham. He was surprised at how low the asking price was, commenting: "You could pay more for a car. We're not talking millions but hundreds of thousands of pounds." Grant was able to afford the business by selling his house, his car "and everything else" as well as borrowing from a bank and raising money from friends; two former Oxford classmates, friends from Leeds, his grandmother, and his former chief executive at Bookham. The deal was completed in December 2005.