Martin Grant

Martin Grant (b. 1967), fashion designer, works in his atelier in Paris on the Rue Charlot, where he releases four collections per year. Grant grew up in Nunawading, Vic, leaving school at 15 to work with a Melbourne evening wear designer and establish his own label. After studying sculpture at the Victorian College of the Arts, he left Australia in 1990, working as a dressmaker in London before moving to Paris the following year. Here, over the next decade, he managed to build a successful ready-to-wear business, opening his own boutique on the Rue des Rosiers. In 1999 he attracted the attention of US fashion guru André Leon Talley, who persuaded Naomi Campbell to model for him for nothing. Since then he has presented several collections in the main Paris shows. His elegant signature line has been taken up by Barneys, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue in the US and Harvey Nichols in the UK. He was appointed house designer for Barney’s New York, and in 2003 Newsweek dubbed him 'fashion's quiet man'. In 2013, Martin designed the Qantas uniforms for the cabin crew and pilots, employing his philosophy of tasteful clothes that maintain direct relationships with the body. His designs are simultaneously luxurious and restrained – with simple and controlled lines and palettes. Fans of his ladylike and tasteful clothes include American fashion icon Lee Radziwill and actor Cate Blanchett.
This photograph was originally published in Harper’s Bazaar and Good Weekend, and was featured in the 2005 National Portrait Gallery’s Exhibition ‘Glossy 2: Faces, Magazine, Now.’