Toast, an understated brand, expands its presence in the US

Late last year, lifestyle brand Toast quietly opened its second store in the United States on Elizabeth Street in New York's Nolita neighborhood.

Its chief executive, Susie de Rohan Willner, a modest and warm presence, flew in from London during opening week.

Standing next to a newly installed store shelf, her glasses and close-cropped hair, she could easily be mistaken for a Toast customer. She also likes to wear practical and no-nonsense toasty clothes.

Nearby racks hung smock dresses in earth tones called Basalt and Scarab, barrel-leg ecru denim pants, and seaweed green hooded waxed cotton hoodies.

“When I sit in a concept store, I always think that a brand should be recognizable from a distance just by its colors and silhouette,” said Ms. de Rohan Willner. “At Toast, we think we can do that with colors inspired by nature, pops of color that bring nature to life, and craftsmanship.”

Evidence of her vision was in virtually every element of the space, including the hand-thrown stoneware mugs and the repair station where customers could bring in old Toast parts for free repair.

Ms. de Rohan Willner, who was previously Fitflop's chief executive officer and worked for brands including Levi Strauss, Timberland, Dockers and Puma, joined Toast in 2015. She slowly put her plans into action to revitalize her fashion brand. At the time, one fashion writer for The Times of London called it “a bit hippie” and “overpriced.”

“Loose-fitting clothing is always a risk,” says Toast brand director Rosie McKissock.

“We went back to basics,” Ms. De Rohan Willner said. “It's always nice to be able to do that, right? Just say, 'Let's cut everything down.'”

Toast's founding spirit was strong. It was started in 1997 by two archaeologists, Jessica and Jamie Seaton, as a mail order business on a farm in West Wales. Initially, we only offered nightwear and loungewear.

“Eating a piece of toast is a very humbling thing,” Seaton once explained in an interview with Modern House magazine.

But their romantic, hippie aesthetic (what today might be called cottagecore, with a touch of bohemian chic) ​​quickly caught on. Catalogs from the brand's heyday in the early 2000s feature healthy-looking models in “sari apron pants,'' “kurta dresses,'' and Uggs.

Kate Berry, a creative consultant and Domino's editor, hosted a breakfast last year to celebrate the opening of Toast's Brooklyn store on Atlantic Avenue. She well remembered the power the brand had in its early days and how its rustic style remained important in certain circles.

“When I worked at Martha Stewart in 2007, every art director had Toast catalog images on their mood boards,” she recalls.

Ms. De Rohan Willner recognized the need to remind customers of Toast's original philosophy while making the brand more contemporary.

The Seatons, who sold their last stake in Toast in 2018, “had a great awareness of navigating the world in a slow way,” Ms de Rohan Willner said. For her, the name conjured up images of a leisurely Sunday breakfast at home with a cup of hot tea.

First, Ms. de Rohan Willner hired a new head of design, Laura Shippey, who worked for British brand Margaret Howell for eight years and then J.Crew. For inspiration, Sippy looked to Japanese and European workwear, menswear-inspired silhouettes, and vintage textiles from around the world.

Ms De Rohan Willner then began “adjusting the technology,” she said.

The collection features hand embroidery, shibori, tie-dye, indigo, and hand-printed fabrics such as ikat and block prints. Toast has also started spotlighting local artisans. The brand now resells creatively repaired pieces, vintage items and newly returned second-hand items, donating a portion of the proceeds.

The store also hosts clothing exchange and repair events, where consumers can bring in items they would like repaired using a variety of techniques, including sashiko, the Japanese custom of decorative reinforcement, darning, patching, and appliqué. Masu.

Toast has a strong presence in the UK, with 20 stores in addition to the two in the US.

The brand hosted a quiet dinner at its Elizabeth Street shop a few weeks before opening. The walls were bare. The boxes of clothes still needed to be unpacked.

The event also served humble dishes such as white bean soup and stewed koji nut squash made with local ingredients, but it was less well-known and there were no photographers to take images for publicity or marketing. .

Actress Beanie Feldstein also stopped by for cocktail hour. Feldstein first learned about Toast when she auditioned for the movie “How to Build a Girl” in London.

“The casting director at the audition had a similar body type to me and was wearing great overalls,” Feldstein recalls. “I told myself that if I got this role, I'd buy some overalls. And I did. In fact, that's how I met my wife. Then the director, the screenwriter, we all bought some overalls.” .”

How many pieces of Toast clothing does Ms. Feldstein currently own?

“Between me and my wife?” she asked and stopped. “a lot.”