TL;DR
Get tools and workshop supplies delivered free — and shop member deals
- Fast, free delivery on millions of items
- Access to Prime Big Deal Days deals on October 6–7
- Prime Video, Amazon Music and more included
Design Milk’s Friday Five feature profiles Toast CEO Suzie de Rohan Willner and the artists, architecture and personal influences that shape her perspective. She discusses Anni Albers, Ruth Asawa, the Glass House, Isamu Noguchi and her stepfather William Mitchell, alongside Toast projects involving community events and garment renewal.
Design Milk has published an interview with Toast CEO Suzie de Rohan Willner, who describes five influences on her approach to art, design and craft, including Anni Albers, the Glass House and sculptor Isamu Noguchi. The Friday Five feature also outlines recent Toast projects, including a capsule made from returned and damaged garments, placing repair and reuse alongside the brand’s cultural programming.
In the interview, de Rohan Willner says Albers inspires her for raising textiles from a traditional craft into a respected art form. She highlights Albers’ emphasis on experimenting directly with materials and understanding their qualities before deciding what they should become. She also names Ruth Asawa, whose looped-wire sculptures, she says, hold together strength and lightness.
Her architectural reference is Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut. De Rohan Willner describes its full-height glass walls as dissolving the boundary between the building’s interior and the landscape. She also points to Noguchi’s movement across sculpture, furniture, paper lanterns and gardens as an example of creative work that need not stay within one medium.
The fifth influence is the sculptural doors at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, designed by William Mitchell, de Rohan Willner’s stepfather. She describes Mitchell as a pioneer of concrete as an artistic medium, combining research into a place’s history with a modern approach. She says his courage in his work has stayed with her.
The feature connects these influences to Toast projects. For the Spring/Summer 2026 collection, titled A Shared Table, the company held a locally produced luncheon on farmland near Llansteffan Castle in Wales, described as the brand’s birthplace. For Spring/Summer 2025, it presented installations at Somerset House in London under the title A Lightness of Being, including a performance by dancers Francesca Matthys and Masumi Saito.
Craft and Repair in Toast’s Work
The interview offers a view into how a fashion brand’s creative leadership connects artistic references with its products and public projects. De Rohan Willner’s examples range from textile experimentation and sculpture to architecture and concrete, but her comments repeatedly return to working with material rather than treating it as disposable.
That connection is clearest in Toast’s repair and reuse initiatives. De Rohan Willner says artist Lee Krasner’s practice of breaking up earlier works and using their fragments in new compositions reminds her of Toast’s efforts to extend the life of garments. The company’s Toast Repair, Renewed and Reworn initiatives are described as ways to respond to damaged or unwanted clothing through mending, alteration and reuse. The interview presents this as the company’s approach; it does not provide figures on participation, garment volumes or environmental impact.
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
From Artist References to Collections
Design Milk presents the interview as part of its recurring Friday Five format, asking a guest to identify five inspirations. De Rohan Willner’s answers are personal as well as professional: Mitchell was her stepfather, while the other selections reflect her interest in visual art, architecture and making across disciplines.
The project descriptions also provide a snapshot of Toast’s recent creative activity. In the Renewed capsule, Dutch textile artist Meta Struycken designed eight full-size pieces using returned or damaged Toast items and fabric remnants from her studio. The feature identifies embroidery, appliqué and quilting among the handcraft methods used. Toast’s Fall/Winter 2026 collection, Marking the Turn, is described as drawing on seasonal rituals, gathering and folk traditions through its techniques, colors and forms.
“She believed design is learned through direct experimentation with material.”
— Suzie de Rohan Willner, on Anni Albers
Project Results Not Detailed
The Design Milk feature describes Toast’s projects and the company’s repair and reuse programs, but it does not report how many garments have been repaired, renewed or reworn, or provide independent measures of their environmental effects. It also does not give dates for every project beyond the collection seasons and the reference to the Wales luncheon taking place in the past spring.
The article is a profile based on de Rohan Willner’s stated inspirations and descriptions of Toast initiatives, not an independent evaluation of the company’s work. It supplies no additional information about the programs’ scale, eligibility or future plans.
Toast’s Next Collection Milestones
The feature identifies Toast’s Fall/Winter 2026 collection, Marking the Turn, as a forthcoming or current creative milestone, but does not provide a release date or further launch details. It describes the collection’s themes—seasonal rituals, gathering and folk traditions—without specifying when customers can expect to see it.
Any further details about the collection or the scale of Toast’s repair and renewal initiatives would need to come from later company announcements or reporting. Design Milk’s published feature does not set out another interview, event or confirmed next step.
Key Questions
What is the news about Suzie de Rohan Willner?
Design Milk published a Friday Five interview in which the Toast CEO discusses five artistic and architectural influences and recent projects by the company.
Which five influences did de Rohan Willner name?
She named textile artist Anni Albers, sculptor Ruth Asawa, Philip Johnson’s Glass House, artist Isamu Noguchi and the sculptural doors at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, designed by William Mitchell.
What is Toast Renewed by Meta Struycken?
As described in the interview, it is a capsule in which Dutch textile artist Meta Struycken created eight full-size pieces using returned or damaged Toast items and fabric remnants. The pieces use handcraft techniques including embroidery, appliqué and quilting.
Does the article give measurable results for Toast’s repair programs?
No. It describes Toast Repair, Renewed and Reworn as initiatives focused on garment repair, alteration and reuse, but provides no participation, garment-volume or environmental-impact figures.
Source: rss
Halloween Picks
halloween
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
