Less is more: rethinking consumption with Patrick Grant

The Green Alliance Podcast

Green Alliance

Environment, Uk, Farming, Green Alliance, News, Sustainability, Society & Culture, Government

4.9 • 34 Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, Libby Peake, senior fellow and head of resource policy, speaks to Patrick Grant, clothing designer and BBC's Sewing Bee judge, discussing Grant's book "Less." They delve into the shift taken over the last century from quality manufacturing that benefited communities to a fast fashion model that generates enormous waste and minimal value. In this conversation, Patrick Grant advocates for a "lower consumption, higher value economy," where people buy fewer but better quality items that last longer, create local repair economies and generate more satisfaction. He highlights how many consumers today lack a frame of reference for quality goods, having grown up with synthetic materials, and emphasises the distinction between enduring "clothing" versus disposable "fashion." The episode concludes with both speakers agreeing that while fashion has cultural value, the current system of AI-designed, oil-based disposable fashion is unsustainable and requires policy intervention to incentivise quality and local production.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Green Alliance podcast. We are the charity and think tank that is dedicated to
0:08.3	achieving ambitious leadership for the environment. I'm Libby Peek. I'm head of resource policy
0:13.3	and senior fellow at Green Alliance and I'm delighted to be joined today by Patrick Grant.
0:18.2	Clothing designer, businessman and judge of BBC's Sewing Bee, among plenty of other labels,
0:22.8	I could give him.
0:24.0	We're going to talk today about his new book, Les, which I'd describe as an impassioned
0:28.8	defence of quality of workmanship and manufacturing, and of the idea that we should
0:33.4	stop buying so much rubbish.
0:35.5	And I personally love this idea, as it's expressed in the subheader,
0:38.8	which also says that this will make us happier as a society. And it touches on various everyday objects,
0:44.5	but focuses in on the fashion industry that he's been operating in for decades, and which now
0:49.8	seems to be based on the idea that we should have more, always more. And the book contains some
0:55.3	pretty startling statistics. And we've done quite a bit of work in this area, but I didn't know
0:59.5	that it was this shocking, including that some fast fashion brands are now releasing 2,000 new
1:04.6	styles a month, and one in particular, Sheen was, as of 2022, releasing close to 4,000 new styles a day, which is pretty staggering. But I'd say that
1:13.7	the book starts with a trot through history and examines how we got here, starting with very early
1:18.6	pre-industrial paucity, when a new set of clothing would cost the equivalent of a servant's yearly
1:23.9	wages, through to the rise of the brand and of American consumerism and on to today.
1:29.4	And that history is where I want to start as well today. As I'm curious to know, Patrick,
1:35.1	welcome to the podcast, by the way. Thank you for having me. I'm curious to know if you think we
1:39.9	ever got it right. And as I'm sure you're not suggesting, we go back to the day of pre-industrial
1:44.6	posity where we only have one set of clothes. So what's your vision for getting it right? And how do we
	...

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