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Design Milk’s Friday Five profile features Toast CEO Suzie de Rohan Willner discussing five influences, including Anni Albers, Ruth Asawa, Philip Johnson’s Glass House and sculptor William Mitchell. She also describes Toast projects centered on community, performance and reworking used textiles; the profile does not announce a new company policy or product launch.
Toast CEO Suzie de Rohan Willner has discussed five influences on her approach to art and design, from Anni Albers and Ruth Asawa to Philip Johnson’s Glass House and the sculptural doors at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, in a Design Milk Friday Five profile. The interview also describes recent Toast projects, including a collection launch in Wales and a capsule of renewed garments, offering a view of how the company connects its creative work with craft, reuse and community.
In the profile, de Rohan Willner says Albers inspires her for elevating textiles beyond traditional craft and for treating experimentation with materials as central to design. She describes Asawa’s looped-wire sculptures as balancing strength with lightness. Johnson’s Glass House, in New Canaan, Connecticut, appeals to her for its glass walls and the relationship it creates between interior space and the landscape.
Her other two selections are sculptor Isamu Noguchi, whose work spans sculpture, furniture, lanterns and public gardens, and the doors at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. De Rohan Willner identifies the sculptural work’s designer, William Mitchell, as her stepfather. She credits his research into a site’s history and his use of concrete as an artistic medium as influences on her own appreciation of tactile, craft-led design.
The interview also recounts several Toast projects. For its Spring/Summer 2026 collection, A Shared Table, the company held a locally produced luncheon on farmland near Llansteffan Castle in Wales, which the source describes as the brand’s birthplace. A separate gathering at London’s Somerset House accompanied Spring/Summer 2025’s A Lightness of Being, with performances by dancers Francesca Matthys and Masumi Saito. The profile also features Toast Renewed by Meta Struycken: eight full-size pieces made using returned or damaged Toast items and fabric remnants, incorporating embroidery, appliqué and quilting.
How Art Informs Toast’s Work
The interview links de Rohan Willner’s personal references to the way Toast presents its design and repair work. She draws a connection between artist Lee Krasner’s practice of breaking up earlier works to make new compositions and the company’s efforts to give garments further use. The profile names Toast Repair, Renewed and Reworn as initiatives involving visible mending, creative alteration and reuse.
That connection matters because it frames repair not only as a practical service but also as part of the company’s creative identity. The Struycken capsule provides a specific example: the interview says its eight pieces used returned and damaged garments alongside studio fabric remnants. It does not provide sales figures, participation levels or evidence of the initiatives’ environmental impact, so the account supports a description of the approach, not a measure of its results.
The projects also show how Toast stages collection launches through shared experiences, from a meal in Wales to dance at Somerset House. De Rohan Willner’s comments make clear that the company’s creative references include architecture, sculpture and performance as well as clothing and textiles.
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The Profile’s Five Creative References
Design Milk’s Friday Five format invites a guest to name five sources of inspiration. This installment centers on de Rohan Willner’s interests in art, architecture and craft, then connects those influences with selected Toast projects. The supplied article identifies her as the company’s CEO and says that a creative family helped foster her interest in art, design and making.
The source says Toast Creative Director Laura Shippey introduced de Rohan Willner to Krasner’s work. De Rohan Willner was struck by the artist’s willingness to dismantle earlier works and reuse fragments. The profile places that response alongside the company’s repair and reuse initiatives, but does not claim that Krasner directly shaped a specific product or business decision.
The projects described span different seasons: the Somerset House event accompanied Spring/Summer 2025, while the Wales luncheon launched Spring/Summer 2026. The profile also discusses Toast’s Fall/Winter 2026 collection, Marking the Turn, whose stated theme concerns seasonal rituals and gatherings, translated through handcraft, color and forms referencing practical objects of the past.
“She believed design is learned through direct experimentation with material. She asked what the material wanted to do before asking how it should look.”
— Suzie de Rohan Willner on Anni Albers
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What the Interview Leaves Open
The supplied material is a profile, not an announcement of a new Toast initiative. It gives no publication date, detailed project dates beyond the collection seasons, or further information about the scale and availability of the Renewed capsule. It is also unclear whether the eight pieces made with Meta Struycken remain available.
The article describes Toast’s repair and reuse programs but provides no data on how many garments they have handled, how much material has been kept in use, or what measurable environmental effects they have had. Those outcomes cannot be established from the interview. The source also does not explain whether the Wales and Somerset House events are part of a continuing program or one-off collection celebrations.
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Toast’s Upcoming Seasonal Collections
The profile points to Toast’s Fall/Winter 2026 collection, Marking the Turn, as a forthcoming seasonal theme focused on movement from summer into autumn and winter. De Rohan Willner says the collection draws on seasonal rituals, folk traditions and handcraft. The source does not give a release date, product details or plans for an accompanying event.
No further announcements or next steps are specified for Toast Renewed, Repair or Reworn. Readers will need later company information to establish whether additional artist collaborations or repair projects are planned.
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Key Questions
What is the news about Suzie de Rohan Willner?
Design Milk published a Friday Five profile in which Toast CEO Suzie de Rohan Willner discusses five artistic and architectural inspirations and several Toast projects.
Who are de Rohan Willner’s five inspirations?
She names textile artist Anni Albers, sculptor Ruth Asawa, the Glass House, sculptor Isamu Noguchi, and the sculptural doors at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, designed by William Mitchell, her stepfather.
What is Toast Renewed by Meta Struycken?
The profile describes a capsule of eight full-size pieces made from returned or damaged Toast items and fabric remnants. It says the work uses techniques including embroidery, appliqué and quilting.
Did the interview announce a new Toast program?
No. It is a profile about de Rohan Willner’s influences and selected projects. It discusses existing initiatives and collections but does not announce a new program.
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