Toast Returns
Campaign imagery for Toast’s menswear collection (image: Toast).
After a six-and-a-half-year hiatus, the fashion brand Toast has restored menswear to its collection.
When the brand’s current CEO, Suzie de Rohan Willner, arrived in 2015, Toast stripped back its offering. Menswear and homeware lines were put on pause, with the brand refocusing attention onto the womenswear that represented the core of its business. “It was a beautiful brand that had lost its way,” de Rohan Willner told Drapers at the time. "Different design teams had pulled it in different directions through the years and it hadn’t stayed true to its original intent.”
While other categories such as nightwear and homeware have already been restored, menswear represents the final stage in de Rohan Willner’s reset of the brand, which has refocused its identity around designing functional garments enlivened by high-quality textiles, colours and craft techniques. Alongside its clothing, the brand has also launched its New Makers programme to support contemporary craftspeople.
The menswear range encompasses 27 styles and is overseen by Nikki Sher, Toast's head of menswear and buying. Encompassing Donegal wool sweaters, wool-cashmere donkey jackets and organic corduroy trousers, the range references Toast’s familiar workwear aesthetic, enlivened with colour bursts of ginger nut orange and fragrant lavender.
To learn more about the range and Toast’s decision to return to menswear, Disegno sat down with Sher. An edited version of the resulting conversation follows below.
Why did Toast stop its menswear collection in 2015?
At the time we wanted to really build and evolve the women’s collection. That was a massive job. The men’s was small enough such that we could give it a sabbatical without destroying the business: it represented a very small amount of sales, whereas womenswear was 95 per cent. So we thought, “Let’s concentrate on women.” And thank god we did.
So what has changed in these past six years to reverse that decision?
We’re at a point where we feel confident and excited and passionate about our USP as a brand. We have a specific look and feel. We’ve always managed to balance masculine and feminine, we have a strong workwear influence, and we’re celebrating craft and handmade within our clothing and textiles. That whole mix is quite eclectic and creative, and defines Toast womenswear, so the menswear was an obvious extension of that. There are some really strong mens brands out there at the moment – menswear looks stronger than I’ve seen it for years.
So where does Toast fit into that?
Toast menswear was all about the fabric. Not compromising and being really creative with layering textures. I feel like there hasn’t been anything since that’s done that. There are some amazing men’s brands out there, but nothing with that confidence of quirky colour combinations and relaxed shapes, done in sophisticated yarns and textiles. Having the confidence to choose a lavender t-shirt under an olive jacket with a silk ochre bandana, for instance. It’s about playing with colour, but in a wearable way. There are lots of creative men out there who are looking for something a bit more interesting – not too safe, but still wearable. There feels like a gap in the market for this more unisex, androgynous look.
You’ve mentioned unisex – how closely linked are the menswear and womenswear collections?
Most of the women who work in our head office would buy the menswear pieces as well, and wear the sweaters and jackets but oversize. It shares an ethos with the womenswear and has that same relaxed energy and creative confidence – they’re both drawing on lots of artisan makers for example. But I found a menswear designer who could take the collection on separately. It’s a small collection, but its designer works very closely with the womenswear designers on concepts and inspiration trips, and she goes and sources yarns with the knitwear designer. So the menswear references the same respect for fabrics and the handmade as the women’s. Previously, the men’s collection shared fabrics with womenswear and we’re carrying on those values, but it has been modernised. It has a freshness and it’s reflective of the times we’re living in.
In what sense?
The silhouettes may be slightly easier. I remember seven years ago that one of the bestselling styles was a fitted check wool jacket and that’s not where we are today. It’s much more unstructured. As the women’s has become more playful, we wanted the men’s to feel more playful too. It has the familiar values of craft, provenance and longevity, but it’s a little fresher.
How do you feel the menswear market has changed during Toast’s hiatus?
Brands have really focused their identity. They’re not trying to be everything to everyone and I don’t feel that when you walk into a menswear store you’re swamped with stuff. I’m sure brands are doing a better job of sourcing where their fabrics come from. Our customer is incredibly interested in where our goods are coming from and we are very happy to have that element of storytelling. I don’t think all brands are doing storytelling, but I think people are realising that you need your own sense of identity and to stay true to that.
And how does that identity manifest in the collection itself?
Well, for instance, we feel a great responsibility to limit waste. In our womenswear we’ve reduced our collections by 20 per cent, and we’ve also reduced the number of drops per season from six to three over the last two years. We’ve achieved a much higher sell-through and we’re also sending out a stronger message. We’re saying this is what we believe in, and what feels good for us. And because the menswear is a small collection, we’re trying to keep the materials as local as possible. All our jersey is an organic slub jersey from Portugal, for example. The only time we don’t do that is if we’re sharing a fabric in an exact colour with womenswear, like the organic cord from China. Then we have it made in the same area for both collections, as it doesn’t make any sense to add to the carbon footprint if we don’t need to.