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Toast CEO Suzie de Rohan Willner shared five influences in a Design Milk Friday Five interview, including Anni Albers, Ruth Asawa, the Glass House and William Mitchell’s cathedral doors. She also discussed Toast projects centered on community, experimentation and reworking returned or damaged textiles. The source presents these as her perspectives and the company’s projects; it does not report a new business announcement.
Toast CEO Suzie de Rohan Willner has described how artists, architecture and family influences shape her approach to craft and the clothing company’s work, in a Design Milk Friday Five interview. Her examples include Anni Albers, Ruth Asawa, Philip Johnson’s Glass House and sculptural doors by her stepfather, artist William Mitchell, alongside Toast projects involving community events and textile repair.
De Rohan Willner said she is drawn to Albers’s transformation of textiles from a traditional craft into a respected art form. She highlighted Albers’s material-led process: experimenting directly with a material and asking what it can do before deciding how it should look. She also cited Asawa’s looped-wire sculptures, describing their contrast between strength and lightness and the way they make an industrial material appear organic.
Her architectural reference was Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, whose full-height glass walls, she said, connect interior life with the landscape. She also named Isamu Noguchi, noting his movement among sculpture, furniture, paper lanterns and gardens. The fifth influence was the sculptural doors at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, designed by Mitchell. De Rohan Willner, Mitchell’s stepdaughter, said his use of concrete and combination of historical research with modern forms had stayed with her.
The interview also describes Toast initiatives and events. For its Spring/Summer 2026 collection, the company held a locally produced luncheon on farmland around Llansteffan Castle in Wales, which the source identifies as the brand’s birthplace. A separate event at London’s Somerset House accompanied the Spring/Summer 2025 collection. Toast also launched a Renewed capsule with Dutch textile artist Meta Struycken, who made eight full-size pieces using returned or damaged Toast items and fabric remnants, employing techniques such as embroidery, appliqué and quilting.
How Craft Shapes Toast’s Work
The interview connects de Rohan Willner’s personal references to the company’s stated interest in repair, reuse and experimentation. She drew a parallel between Lee Krasner’s practice of breaking apart earlier paintings to make new compositions and Toast initiatives including Toast Repair, Renewed and Reworn, which the source says treat damaged or unwanted garments as material for mending, alteration and reuse.
This account offers readers a view of how the company’s chief executive describes the relationship between artistic influence and brand activity. It is not a report measuring the programs’ scale or environmental outcomes. The specific Renewed capsule provides a concrete example of the approach: eight pieces made from returned or damaged clothing and leftover fabric, according to the source.
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From Artistic Influence to Collections
Design Milk’s Friday Five format asks a guest to share five inspirations. In this interview, de Rohan Willner’s list ranges from modern artists to architecture and a family connection. Her comments on Mitchell are personal as well as artistic: she identifies him as her stepfather and credits his work with influencing her perspective on craft and courage.
The project descriptions span different collections and dates. The source places the Somerset House gathering with Spring/Summer 2025 and the Wales luncheon with Spring/Summer 2026. It also describes Toast’s Fall/Winter 2026 collection, titled Marking the Turn, as drawing on seasonal rituals, folk traditions and handcraft. These references place the interview’s examples within the company’s collection and events calendar, rather than indicating that every project was newly announced at publication.
“She believed design is learned through direct experimentation with material.”
— Suzie de Rohan Willner, on Anni Albers
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What the Interview Does Not Measure
The source is a first-person interview and project roundup, not an independent evaluation of Toast’s repair and reuse programs. It does not provide figures for how many garments are repaired, renewed or reworn, the amount of material diverted from waste, or the programs’ reach. The article also does not specify when the interview was published beyond its placement in Design Milk’s Friday Five series, or give dates for every project described.
The source characterizes the Welsh luncheon as having taken place “this past spring” in relation to its publication, but without a publication date that wording cannot be tied to a precise calendar date. It also does not provide further operational details, such as the availability or pricing of the eight Renewed pieces.
contemporary glass house architecture models
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Toast’s Upcoming Collection Themes
The source points to Toast’s Fall/Winter 2026 collection, Marking the Turn, whose theme centers on seasonal rituals and gatherings. It says the collection translates folk traditions through craft techniques, color and forms informed by practical objects of the past. The interview does not give a launch date or additional details about availability.
Beyond that collection description, the source reports no next milestone for the Repair, Renewed or Reworn programs. Further information about the reach of those initiatives, future artist collaborations and upcoming events would be needed to establish how the work develops.
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Key Questions
What did Suzie de Rohan Willner discuss in the interview?
She discussed five influences—Anni Albers, Ruth Asawa, the Glass House, Isamu Noguchi and William Mitchell’s cathedral doors—and described recent Toast events and textile projects.
How does she connect art with Toast’s repair work?
De Rohan Willner compared Lee Krasner’s reuse of fragments from earlier paintings with Toast programs that repair, alter or reuse damaged and unwanted garments. This is her explanation of the connection; the interview provides no impact measurements.
What was the Toast Renewed capsule?
According to the source, Dutch textile artist Meta Struycken created eight full-size pieces from returned or damaged Toast items and fabric remnants, using techniques including embroidery, appliqué and quilting.
What is Toast’s Marking the Turn collection?
It is Toast’s Fall/Winter 2026 collection theme, described in the interview as drawing on seasonal rituals, folk traditions and handcraft. The source does not give a release date.
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