No Nay Never to Black Friday says fashion guru Patrick Grant
Fashion entrepreneur Patrick Grant has hit back at Black Friday has said his Blackburn–based brand Community Clothing will never succumb to the discount sales frenzy, and that it is a symptom of everything that is wrong with business today.
“Businesses could and should do good for society,” he said. “They should make and sell objects of real and lasting value, things that give great pleasure and utility to their owners. They should sustain and create good jobs that people are proud to do.”
“And they should do so in a way which minimises, or if possible eliminates, all waste and pollution, ensuring that they cause no harm to our planet.”
The star of BBC TV’s The Great British Sewing Bee, and the fashion entrepreneur behind the Savile Row tailor S. Norton, Grant set up Community Clothing in Lancashire in 2014 after he bought the Cookson and Clegg Factory in Blackburn, pledging to produce staple items and to utilise downtime in factories that were serving seasonal demand by the large clothing multiples.
“Black Friday encourages rampant over consumption of terrible quality tat, poverty jobs, and an ever-growing waste mountain along with terrifying levels of pollution. It is a symptom of everything that is wrong with the way most businesses operate today,” Grant said.
“At Community Clothing we believe in a different way of doing things. Our mission is simple: make great quality affordable clothes which last as long as we can possibly make them, and by doing so we support skilled, well-paid work right here in the UK. We never have a sale, not on Black Friday, or Blue Monday, not ever, instead we charge the very best price we can for the things we sell 365 days a year encouraging you to buy what you need, when you need it.
“So this Black Friday we encourage you to think carefully about what you want your hard earned money to do – line the pockets of a billionaire with us trotters up on his yacht in some tropical tax haven, or find its way into the pockets of hardworking skilled folk right here in your own back yard. Think Blackburn, not Black Friday.”
