KIT PATERSON
- 5' ELEVEN''
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Sometimes, life-changing situations can come in the most unlikely of places. For Kit Paterson, that happened on the tube when a model scout spotted his potential, and from there, for the next few years, his life was a balance between Exeter clubs and chic Paris showrooms.
Interview by Leigh Maynard.
Kit Paterson wears CHANEL Le Lift Flash Eye Patches. Photographed by Max Ragan. Styled by Alton Hetariki. Makeup by Ninni Nummela using CHANEL Beauty. Hair by Masaki Kameda. Kit appears courtesy of Push Button Generation.
Perhaps learning more from the school of life than at university at the time, Kit is grateful for the opportunities this period offered him, including work on campaigns for Lee Cooper, Jack Wills, and Paul Smith. And then came COVID and the time to reflect. Today, though modelling remains part of Kit’s life, he has expanded his horizons into the intersection of food and fashion with his company, The Candid Club, which provides unique hospitality events for the fashion world. “The Candid Club began as an effort to fill a creative gap. Jack had the original idea, he asked me why fashion brands don’t use restaurants & hospitality as a medium of marketing. The busiest are always full, and those in attendance are constantly looking to be visually stimulated. It simply made sense. I loved it, and although I wasn’t quite at the stage of life to open a restaurant, I had been looking for an excuse to start a ‘Supper Club’ (words which we’ve since abandoned). Perhaps my slight online following would be keen & I wanted to try myself out in a kitchen organised by myself. Since our first event in June 2024, it has grown & grown more than we had ever expected it to. It’s difficult to choose one significant moment, but our recent launch with A Day’s March at their Berwick Street store stands out. We have a good relationship with the team, and I believe we displayed what we are capable of doing for clothing brands.”
And though perhaps modelling and the culinary world are vastly different, both, he says, are equally as character building. “Kitchens are a completely different beast, obviously, ridiculous places to work. So much fun sometimes, an absolute pit of anxiety at others. Chefs learn so much from discipline and punctuality to hierarchy and the importance of having a LAUGH!” And, as if a company and modelling career were not achievements enough, Kit also entertains us on the screen as a cast member of the high-end reality show Made in Chelsea. Ensuring he remains very much himself on the show, he says a thespian career isn’t currently in the plan, though if the right part came up, he could be persuaded. Ultimately, Kit has big plans to make his unique nights with Candid a permanent fixture, and it’s that metaphorical hunger - to be master of his own destiny that appears to have underpinned Kit’s journey so far. “In the next couple of years, we aim to have at least two month-long restaurant-style residencies. Watch this space!” Whether on a short tube ride, heading up fashion shoots or curating culinary campaigns, it’s clear that Kit Paterson is going places.
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