Immersing ourselves in the pursuit of knowledge, our Autumn Winter 2025 collection, The Curious Mind, celebrates the spirit of curiosity, contemplation, and a lifetime of learning. With an acknowledgement of what has gone before, we explore notions of the classics and those who laid the foundations. We examine the ways that study frees the mind to wander and dream, and consider the creatives and thinkers who take an experimental approach to the fundamentals.
“It was a quote by Georgia O’Keeffe that inspired the concept,” says our Creative Director, Laura Shippey. “She said, ‘Interest is the most important thing in life; happiness is temporary, but interest is continuous.’”
As the season begins, we follow the practice of artists and thinkers. We reference the expressive mark-making of painters, the stitched bindings and folded paper of sketchbooks, and the tiled floors of the museums and coffee houses from which they work. Overdyed and woven checks echo notebook grids, while graphic stripes nod to the studio style of twentieth-century creatives. A new wide-leg flat-fronted jean anchors the season’s studious silhouette, while dresses are worn loose and effortless or styled open and layered.
We move from the artist’s studio to the reading room and museum. Soft tailoring in brushed cotton and wool is layered with sheer shirting and gathered necklines, accented by tonal embroidery and thoughtful patchworks - echoing the folds, bindings and careful order of the archive. Coordinated pieces offer versatility, wearable together or apart. Cotton gilets, hand kantha-stitched in India, takes its tessellated motifs from tiled museum floors and archivist blueprints.
“To study,” says Laura, “is to keep learning - to return to the same material and find something new in it. That’s what we’re drawn to: process, repetition and the beauty of things made with care.” In this spirit, we have reimagined traditional tweed through the intricate language of kantha stitching and graphic prints. We also celebrate the heritage textile industries of the UK and our new and longstanding partnerships with local craftspeople. Our graphic sweater, made entirely in the UK, is crafted from a melange of undyed Shetland wool; silk scarves are screen-printed by Adamsley in Macclesfield, a company with 50 years of heritage; leather shoes are made exclusively for TOAST by Grenson and Solovair in the heart of British shoemaking, Northamptonshire. Each draws on generations of knowledge, passed down through many hands. We continue to work closely with our global partners, whose skill in hand-stitching, dyeing and weaving brings expressive tactility to cloth.
In the home, our concept is realised through the interiors in which study takes place. Ceramics with expressive and painterly slip decoration nod to the artist’s studio, a space for experimentation with line and colour. The archive is explored through traditional textile techniques, with simple weaves and hand-stitching. Still life compositions are influenced by figures such as Giorgio Morandi, while a rich palette is drawn from Emily Vanderpoel’s Colour Problems, a body of work that explored the relationships between colours in quotidian home objects.
As we journey through the season we arrive at the conservatoire, where melody is interpreted as a sensorial, immediate form of art - felt before it is understood. Donegal knits in flecked yarns speak to sweeping symphonies. Others are space-dyed or striped, echoing the marbled endpapers of books of sheet music. A cotton-silk dress is hand-painted with loose, expressive checks, recalling the intuitive rhythms of musical improvisation.
Colour stories unfold to a considered palette. In loungewear, we have been inspired by the soft tonality of still life paintings. Elsewhere, accessories grow weightier with purpose - hand-woven wool scarves in new, more narrow shapes and corduroy bags reflect the studious silhouettes of Left Bank creatives.
This season, we took a new approach to photographing our collection, with a different photographer commissioned for each chapter. Like leafing through an archive, there is a sense of discovery as the season progresses - each section a fragment of a wider, unfolding narrative, uniquely captured by photographers Jo Metson Scott, Ben Beagent and Olivier Kervern.
Shop TOAST Autumn Winter 2025 Womenswear, Menswear and Home.
Each piece is made to last and evolve — intended to be worn with ease and restyled across time. If any of your existing TOAST garments are in need of care, consider our free TOAST Repair service.
Learn about our journey towards more thoughtful living in our Social Conscience Report.
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