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Toast CEO Suzie de Rohan Willner shared five influences, including Anni Albers, Ruth Asawa, the Glass House and William Mitchell, in Design Milk’s Friday Five feature. She also discussed Toast projects focused on repair, community gatherings and collections shaped by craft; the feature is a profile, not an announcement of a new company initiative.
Toast CEO Suzie de Rohan Willner has described how artists, architecture and family influences inform her interest in craft and material reuse, in a Design Milk Friday Five feature. Alongside five inspirations, she discussed recent Toast projects, including a capsule collection made from returned or damaged items and fabric remnants.
De Rohan Willner named textile artist Anni Albers, sculptor Ruth Asawa, architect Philip Johnson’s Glass House, sculptor Isamu Noguchi and the sculptural doors at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral among her influences. She said Albers’s work showed her how textiles could move from traditional craft into recognized art, and highlighted Albers’s practice of experimenting directly with materials.
She described Asawa’s looped-wire sculptures as balancing strength and lightness, and said the Glass House’s glass walls connect its interior with the surrounding landscape. Noguchi’s movement among sculpture, furniture, paper lanterns and gardens appealed to her as an example of working across disciplines. She also spoke about William Mitchell, her stepfather, praising his use of concrete and his research into the historical character of places before creating modern work in response.
The feature also points to Toast initiatives and events. For the first Toast Renewed By capsule, Dutch textile artist Meta Struycken designed eight full-size pieces using returned and damaged Toast garments and studio fabric remnants. Toast said the pieces used techniques including embroidery, appliqué and quilting. Other projects included a Spring/Summer 2026 collection launch gathering in Wales and a Somerset House event for the Spring/Summer 2025 collection.
Craft and Reuse in Toast Projects
The interview connects de Rohan Willner’s personal influences to Toast’s stated interest in extending the life of garments. The company’s Toast Repair, Renewed and Reworn initiatives are presented as ways to treat damaged or unwanted clothing as material for repair, alteration or reuse. The Struycken capsule offers a specific example: returned and damaged pieces and remnants were used to create new designs.
That link matters because it shows how the company frames repair as part of its creative identity, rather than only as a practical service. The feature does not provide figures on how many garments have been repaired or reused, or measure the initiatives’ environmental impact. Its evidence is an interview and descriptions of projects, not an independent assessment of their scale or results.
The gathering projects also show Toast using events to connect collections with place and community. In Wales, guests gathered for a locally produced luncheon on farmland near Llansteffan Castle; in London, dancers performed at Somerset House in clothing from the Spring/Summer 2025 collection. These examples document the company’s approach, without establishing how audiences responded or what commercial outcomes followed.
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The Five Influences She Named
Design Milk’s Friday Five format asks a guest to share five inspirations. In this feature, de Rohan Willner’s choices span textile art, sculpture and architecture, as well as a family connection. Her comments on Albers emphasize learning through hands-on material experimentation; her remarks on Noguchi focus on crossing artistic disciplines without losing a distinct voice.
For the Glass House, the feature identifies architect Philip Johnson’s home in New Canaan, Connecticut, and describes its full-height glass walls as creating a close relationship between the interior and landscape. De Rohan Willner’s fifth choice was the sculptural doors at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. She said Mitchell, her stepfather, treated concrete as an artistic medium and combined research into a place’s history with a modern response.
The source also references Lee Krasner, whose work de Rohan Willner said she encountered through Toast Creative Director Laura Shippey. She was struck by Krasner’s willingness to dismantle earlier paintings and remake their fragments. De Rohan Willner saw a parallel with Toast’s reuse and repair work, but the source presents that connection as her interpretation.
“She believed design is learned through direct experimentation with material.”
— Suzie de Rohan Willner on Anni Albers
repair and quilting fabric remnants
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Project Results Are Not Detailed
The Design Milk feature does not give sales, participation or repair-volume data for the Toast initiatives and events. It also does not quantify the amount of material diverted from waste through the Renewed capsule or describe how the pieces were distributed. As a profile, it records de Rohan Willner’s views and Toast’s project descriptions rather than independently verifying broader environmental outcomes.
The source refers to “this past spring” for the Wales gathering and names collections by season, but does not give exact event dates. It also does not specify when further information about the Fall/Winter 2026 collection, titled “Marking the Turn,” will be released.
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Toast’s Upcoming Collection Plans
The source describes Toast’s Fall/Winter 2026 collection, “Marking the Turn,” as exploring seasonal rituals and gatherings through handcraft, color and forms inspired by practical objects of the past. It does not provide a launch date or further details about the collection’s availability.
No new initiative or next event is announced in the interview. Further reporting on the company’s repair and reuse work would need additional information, such as the number of garments handled, the share of materials reused and any published measures of environmental impact.
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Key Questions
What did Suzie de Rohan Willner discuss in the Design Milk feature?
She discussed five creative influences—Anni Albers, Ruth Asawa, the Glass House, Isamu Noguchi and William Mitchell—and described several recent Toast projects.
What is Toast Renewed By?
In the project described by Design Milk, artist Meta Struycken created eight full-size pieces from returned and damaged Toast items and fabric remnants, using techniques such as embroidery, appliqué and quilting.
What did de Rohan Willner say about the Glass House?
She said Philip Johnson’s Glass House connects interior life with the surrounding landscape through its full-height glass walls, and described its design as framing what already exists.
Did the feature report measurable results from Toast’s repair initiatives?
No. It described Toast Repair, Renewed and Reworn and gave an example of a Renewed capsule, but did not provide repair totals, reuse volumes or measured environmental outcomes.
Source: rss
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