Community Clothing is a British clothing brand and social enterprise founded in 2016 by Patrick Grant — Scottish designer, Savile Row tailor, owner of Norton & Sons, and judge on the BBC’s Great British Sewing Bee. Its founding mission is to make high-quality, affordable everyday staples entirely in the UK, paying workers fairly while keeping consumer prices competitive with the high street. The brand operates through a manufacturers’ cooperative model, working with factories across Blackburn, Yorkshire, the East Midlands, Scotland, and South Wales, and charges a markup of approximately 30% of what comparable premium brands charge.
Key Facts
- Founded: 2016
- Founder: Patrick Grant (FRSA; born 1972, Scotland)
- Headquarters: Blackburn, Lancashire, UK (Cookson & Clegg factory)
- Industry: British Made Menswear, Social Enterprise
History
In 2015, Grant received an email informing him that Cookson & Clegg — a Blackburn clothing manufacturer established in 1860, and one of his key suppliers — was closing, with 60 redundancies. He bought the factory with his sister Victoria and began working out how to sustain it. The idea that emerged was Community Clothing: a brand that would sell directly to consumers at fair prices, using factory downtime during seasonal fashion industry lulls to create consistent, year-round employment. A 2016 Kickstarter campaign exceeded its target at midnight with over 1,000 backers; within five weeks, jeans and outerwear were in production at five UK factories.
65% of a Community Clothing garment’s price goes directly to the workers who made it — compared to an industry average of approximately 3%. The brand uses 90% UK-sourced fabrics (the exception is denim, which lacks a sufficiently affordable UK producer), never retouches product photography, and uses community members as models. In 2022, Community Clothing designed and produced the opening ceremony uniforms for Team England at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, manufactured within 100 miles of the venue. Grant delivered a TED Talk on Community Clothing in 2018. The brand now works with over 30 UK factories.
Product and Philosophy
Community Clothing produces seasonless staples — T-shirts, jeans, socks, sweatshirts, rainwear, chore coats, knitwear — designed to last years rather than seasons, using the same fabric across product categories to simplify production and reduce waste. The best-selling products are socks knitted in Leicestershire, which retail for around £5 — identical in construction to socks sold at four times the price by other brands using the same factory. Available online direct and at John Lewis (from 2021).
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