Mavericks, heroes, artists and libertines – Patrick Grant’s new book, Original Man: The Tautz Compendium of Less Ordinary Gentlemen celebrates the most unique and influential male icons of the past century. From rock stars and actors to athletes and inventors, it offers an irreverent guide to pop-culture’s greatest pin-ups: Yves Saint Laurent, Andy Warhol, Iggy Pop and Freddie Mercury sit along alongside explorer Ernest Shackleton, racing driver James Hunt and visionary Federico Fellini, to name a few.
“I wanted to remind people that interesting men still shuffle about this earth, a sort of antidote to masculine crap-ness” — Patrick Grant
Patrick Grant is the owner, designer and creative director of bespoke tailors Norton & Sons and Savile Row menswear label E. Tautz. Grant was credited with breathing fresh life into a tired Savile Row, and now appears to be on a personal mission to refresh our memory of the best pop culture’s icons. “I was inspired to create the book due to the relentless onslaught of vacuous, modern-day celebrity men,” he explains. “I wanted to remind people that interesting men still shuffle about this earth, a sort of antidote to masculine crap-ness… it is a short reminder that life need not be quite so ordinary."
“I think the point with style is that it’s about so much more than clothes, which is something we seem to forget,” Grant continues. “He who lives his life with the greatest style. It’s impossible to pick a favourite from the book, all of them are singular and extraordinary. From the arch oddity of Gilbert & George to the anarchic southern gentlemanliness of William Eggleston.”
