Patrick discovered a couple of things over the course of writing his book, Less. The book attempts to explore the history of consumerism, consumption, quality, and work all within 323 pages. He describes the process as “ambitious and terrifying” and remembers how it all started with Community Clothing, which he established nine years ago with the view of selling quality, affordable, sustainable and ethical men's & women's clothing.

It was in 2017, when Grant was hosting a TED talk about Community Clothing, that someone from publisher HarperCollins asked him to write a book. This led to a series of “key light bulb moments”, which he shared with the attendees of Design For Planet festival earlier this month.

“The first thing that I discovered when researching the book was that, for a very long period of our history, we were encouraged not to consume,” says Grant. In fact, people were taught the opposite - that envy and greed are terrible things and are two of the deadly sins.

This idea was accepted up until the mid-18th century, when economists realised that the amount of wealth in the world was not fixed and that “if you bought more stuff and made more stuff, you actually could create more wealth”, according to Grant. The textile industry was a huge driver of this new way of thinking, as the importation of cheap, fun-coloured cotton textiles from India catalysed a boom in consumption.

Pre-1750s, being a consumer wasn’t such a big deal, as things were made out of natural materials by craftspeople who produced them to an amazing standard. “They were objects that had enduring value and then, when we were tired with something, we would pass it on and somebody else would want it and people would fix it,” Grant explains.

Aside from this, it was still relatively expensive to be a consumer, so the levels of consumption remained quite low. But now, Grants says “we’ve started an acceleration of the level of consumption that has only increased and increased and increased and increased over time.

“All of a sudden, the switch was flipped and we were encouraged as good members of society to start buying things.” And now, we’re struggling to turn off the machine.

Grant’s second realisation was that, for the entire history of man's evolution, we had strived to make things in the best way possible, specifically to minimise consumption. People wanted things to last so they could save money on having to fix it or buy it again.

“In the beginning, literally, our lives depended upon it. If we made terrible spears, we couldn't kill animals; if we didn't make good mortars and parcels, we couldn't smash the grain, which meant that we couldn’t eat it,” says Grant.

He believes that there is something “innately human” about trying to make things well, as making something of quality ultimately makes us feel good about ourselves. It also helps whoever comes to own the object to enjoy it too, as they are sure that it's been well made.

Even when Grant completed his degree in Material Science and Engineering over 30 years ago, he was taught to make things that last as long as possible. 

But, in the last century, the way businesses work has changed the game.

Before we went into the 20th century, most people bought things from the people who had made them which - in some ways - put more pressure on that relationship between buyer and seller/maker. “If I made a shit stool, you wouldn't buy it from me again,” says Grant, so people ensured that objects were made well and that there was value in them.

He adds: “The other really important thing about that relationship was that all of the money you spent went into making the thing that you were paying the craftsperson for, so you were paying for the materials and you were paying for nothing else.”

In essence, there were no “intermediaries” driving up the cost of the product. The same cannot definitely not be said for the present day. In came the corporations in the early 20th century, with the sole ambition of creating money from money, and the notion of designing for longevity and quality when out of the window.

“In the beginning, it wasn't so pernicious,” says Grant, “but as time has gone on, as materials and the engineering of production have changed, it has led to this extraordinary acceleration in the consumption of stuff.”

Having worked in the clothing industry for many years, Grant has seen some of the negative changes happen first hand. “What is very interesting about the clothing industry today is that most people who sell you clothes do not give us stuff about the quality,” he says.

On the contrary, 50 years ago most clothes sellers would describe their function and their quality in their advertising. Take Burberry as an example: for decades they’ve been known for the design and development of truly quality coats and so the adverts of the Burberry coat have evolved but kept the same principles of communicating quality.

Grant also remembers a brilliant story that he heard at business school during his postgrad, outlining the difference between Volkswagen and the American car industry. He says: “It's quite a famous story, but when the team at Volkswagen were designing and developing the Beetle, their philosophy was always to try and make the best Beetle they could, and every new generation of Beetle would be better than the one before.

“It would have better fuel economy, better brakes, better seatbelts, better windscreen wipers, but the philosophy was to not change this car cosmetically in such a way that anybody who has the previous model feels like they need to buy another one.”

This directly contrasts with the philosophy of the American car industry, which was that every new model should be so radically and cosmetically different that anyone driving an older model would feel compelled to buy a new one. Grant says: “That is the difference between something that’s good for the planet and business that's good for the money, and I think we are all now very much aware of this.

“In my industry, we have now got to a point where almost all of the businesses that are in our sector are fast fashion.”

The fact is that bad businesses can only exist if we continue to buy more things from them so, in essence, we have to consume in a completely different way, according to Grant.

One of the things that prompted him to write his book was, funnily enough, an oven tray which he encountered when he moved into a corporate flat in Leeds while filming Great British Sewing Bee. Most of the items in his own home are very old or second hand and still very much fit for purpose, however, the same could not be said for the oven tray in his temporary abode.

In reality, most things in the flat turned out to be poorly made, but the oven tray was the final straw, according to Grant.

“Metal is an amazing thing - we've been using metal for thousands of years and we know how to work with metal, but metal is a clever thing because it remembers its previous form,” he explains. “So, if you want to make something new from metal, you have to beat the metal into submission and make it forget what form it used to be.”

But, when Grant put this oven tray into the oven, which was set to 180 degrees C, he heard a racket coming inside after a few minutes. “I go to the oven, oven chips everywhere - it's a disaster,” he says.

“There's chips on the bottom of the thing and when I take this oven tray out, it is twisted and warped.”