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Design Milk’s Friday Five feature profiles Toast CEO Suzie de Rohan Willner’s five artistic and architectural influences, from Anni Albers to the Glass House and William Mitchell. She also describes recent Toast projects centered on community, performance, and reworking damaged or returned textiles.
Design Milk’s Friday Five features Toast CEO Suzie de Rohan Willner discussing five influences on her approach to art and design, including Anni Albers, the Glass House and sculptor William Mitchell. The interview also highlights Toast projects involving community gatherings, performance and garment reuse, showing how the company’s creative work connects craft with its business and collections.
De Rohan Willner says she was raised in a creative family and continues to draw on an interest in art, design and craftsmanship in her work. She describes Anni Albers as an influence for elevating textiles beyond traditional craft and for beginning with experimentation with materials. Ruth Asawa’s looped-wire sculpture appeals to her for its contrast between strength and apparent lightness, while Isamu Noguchi’s movement among sculpture, furniture, paper lanterns and gardens represents creative freedom across disciplines.
Her architectural reference is Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut. De Rohan Willner says its glass walls create a conversation between interior and landscape. She also discusses the sculptural doors at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, made by her stepfather William Mitchell, describing his work with concrete and his combination of historical research with modern forms as lasting influences.
The interview connects those references to Toast’s projects. De Rohan Willner describes a Spring/Summer 2026 collection launch, A Shared Table, held on farmland near Llansteffan Castle in Wales, Toast’s birthplace. She also cites Toast Renewed by Meta Struycken: the Dutch textile artist made eight full-size pieces from returned or damaged Toast garments and studio remnants, using techniques including embroidery, appliqué and quilting. Other projects covered include a Somerset House event for the Spring/Summer 2025 collection and the Fall/Winter 2026 collection theme, “Marking the Turn.”
Repair and Craft in Toast’s Work
The interview matters as a view into how a fashion company’s leader describes the relationship between artistic influences and product practice. De Rohan Willner links Lee Krasner’s reuse of fragments from earlier paintings to Toast’s approach to damaged and unwanted clothing, naming Toast Repair, Renewed and Reworn as initiatives that treat existing garments as material for mending, alteration and reuse.
That connection is presented as her perspective, not as an independent assessment of the programs’ scale or environmental results. Still, the examples show the ideas Toast chooses to foreground: craft, experimentation and extending the life of materials. The projects also illustrate how the company combines collections with events and collaborations rather than describing design only through finished garments.
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Five Influences Behind the Interview
The source is a Friday Five profile, a first-person-style feature in which a guest shares five inspirations. It is not a company announcement or a report of a newly launched initiative. Design Milk’s account presents de Rohan Willner’s selections and her descriptions of Toast projects; the comments about what inspires her are her own views.
The five selections are Anni Albers, Ruth Asawa, the Glass House, Isamu Noguchi and the sculptural doors at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. The report also mentions Lee Krasner in its introduction: Toast Creative Director Laura Shippey introduced de Rohan Willner to Krasner’s work, and de Rohan Willner says the artist’s practice of reworking fragments resonated with Toast’s reuse efforts.
“She believed design is learned through direct experimentation with material.”
— Suzie de Rohan Willner on Anni Albers
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What the Profile Does Not Establish
The feature offers de Rohan Willner’s account of the inspirations and projects; it does not provide independent evaluation of the company’s repair and reuse programs. It gives no figures for garments repaired, materials recovered, participation or environmental impact, so the programs’ reach cannot be determined from this report.
The source also does not state when the Friday Five was published. It describes several collections by season, but does not provide further information on sales, future events or whether the projects led to measurable changes in company operations.
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Collections and Projects Ahead
The source names Toast’s Fall/Winter 2026 collection, “Marking the Turn,” as a collection theme focused on seasonal rituals, gathering and handcraft. It does not give a release date or details about upcoming events tied to the collection. Readers can expect any further specifics—such as availability, new collaborations or additional repair initiatives—to come from Toast or later coverage.
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Key Questions
What is the news development?
Design Milk published a Friday Five interview with Toast CEO Suzie de Rohan Willner about her artistic influences and selected company projects.
Which five influences did de Rohan Willner name?
She named Anni Albers, Ruth Asawa, the Glass House, Isamu Noguchi and the sculptural doors at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, created by her stepfather William Mitchell.
How does the interview connect art with Toast’s work?
De Rohan Willner links artists’ experimentation and reuse of materials to Toast programs such as Repair, Renewed and Reworn, which she describes as ways to mend, alter and reuse clothing.
What was Toast Renewed by Meta Struycken?
According to the interview, Struycken designed eight full-size pieces for the first capsule using returned and damaged Toast items and fabric remnants, with techniques such as embroidery, appliqué and quilting.
Does the report give data on the impact of Toast’s reuse programs?
No. The source describes the projects but provides no participation, volume or environmental-impact figures.
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