Less

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

‘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

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. Making them provided fulfilling work for millions of skilled people locally.

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. Thirty percent of these garments 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?

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, Less 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 the madness of price and quantity being the only things that matter.

'Presents a new way of thinking about the things we buy' — KEITH BRYMER-JONES