Less, Stop Buying So Much Rubbish: How Having Fewer, Better Things Can Make Us Happier by Patrick Grant
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?
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.
In this passionate and revealing book about loving clothes but despairing of a broken global system Patrick Grant 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.
Weaving in his personal journey through fashion, clothing and the other everyday objects in his life, this is a book that celebrates craftsmanship, making things with care, buying things with thought and valuing everything we own. It explains how rethinking our relationship with clothing could kickstart a thriving new local economy bringing prosperity and hope back to places in our country that have lost out to globalisation, offshore manufacturing and to the madness of price and quantity being the only things that matter.
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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.
'Presents a new way of thinking about the things we buy' KEITH BRYMER-JONES
‘Utterly brilliant. We all need to read this book’ CLAUDIA WINKLEMAN
'Patrick’s book is fascinating and sobering and makes a compelling argument for going back to basics’ JOE LYCETT