For our Autumn Winter 2026 collection, Marking the Turn, we consider the rituals and rites that signal our movement through the seasons. “The starting point was the word ‘connection’,” TOAST Creative Director Laura Shippey says, and following the earth around the sun “from midsummer to mid-winter, solstice and equinox.” She was interested in how folk traditions connect us to “the passing of time, the land and each other,” and in translating that into a present-day language: “softly spare, textural, functional and joyful.”
The idea of marking the seasons feels particularly resonant. “When the world feels chaotic, when information is available all the time and all at once, it’s important to find anchors such as noting the seasons shift,” Laura says, such as “opportunities for coming together to celebrate.” For her, ritual is expressed through gathering. “My family hosts two big parties a year for family and friends, one in June for midsummer in the garden, and one between Christmas and New Year in the house,” she says. “We have been hosting them for 10 years now, and it’s such a nice tradition that has evolved as children have grown older.” These occasions have become a kind of calendar, “important way-markers in the year for our community,” and “a warm space to acknowledge the passing of time and the value of friendship.”
Laura was particularly interested in craft traditions that focus on particular seasonal materials, such as “corn dollies to celebrate the harvest” – inspiring our collaboration with grain weaver Lu Towle of Braided Grain – “or paper cut-outs that celebrate the changing light,” including the Polish tradition of Wycinanki, which is said to have originated from “shepherds using their shears to cut bark into symmetrical designs when the weather kept them indoors.” She also looked to work by potters Lucie Rie and Hans Coper who “were informed by traditional folk vessels, but sought to distil their forms - to find a shape that resonates on a human level but remains timeless,” she says. “The handmade is the consistent feature that creates the connection.”
Across the season, the story shifts with light and temperature. “At the end of summer, long shadows translate into a warm earthy palette,” Laura says, with harvest motifs “translated into smocked yoke designs or knitted intarsias.” In October, the collection leans into “Dusking” - “a newly invented tradition of embracing the waning light, the shedding what is no longer needed.” Colours become smokey and tonal, textures richer and woollier, and silhouettes “stronger for a sense of stability and enveloping.” As midwinter arrives, she looks to “traditions of bringing light to darkness, candlelight and fireworks,” with intense reds and cobalts set against a rich night-sky velvet.
Handwork sits at the heart of TOAST, and this collection celebrates it. “It’s a consistent focus for us as a brand,” Laura says, and the pieces incorporate techniques including “handweaving, block-printing and hand-smocking, garment dip-dye, patchworking and embroidery.” The season also celebrates the irregularity that signals the human touch, “the wobbly and imperfect lines of hand-painting or collage.” For September, a hand-smocked shirt is made from handwoven cotton with raw silk ‘ribs’ in the weft, with motifs "reminiscent of designs on a sundial,” as “a modern take on a traditional folk smock.” In October, an alpaca yoke sweater in soft dark brown carries the “Dusking” mood, its motifs “like stylised winter twigs,” with “a boldness and simplicity that feels stable and enveloping.” As November comes, a dress is dipped in dye to create a “slanting strong cobalt blue hem that evokes the emergence of light from midwinter onwards.”
In menswear, a patchwork jacket is inspired by the end of the summer, when “birds start their migration and the shadows lengthen.” For layering as the temperature drops, it features the abstract shapes of a bird in flight in warm, earthy-hued cotton canvas. “The handstitched lines are like pathways,” says Laura, and the lining is made from end-of-roll fabrics to minimise waste.
For homeware, Head of Home Judith Harris takes the collection’s concept and focuses on “the pared back buildings of past rural settings,” where “simplicity” is driven by function, and where “pattern evolves from the construction.” The home design team visited the Weald and Downland Museum, an outdoor museum just outside Chichester that preserves historic buildings and the story of rural life in the south of England. In the collection, that translates into a sense of worn surfaces - “cracks in wood are to be enjoyed, material imperfections are to be enjoyed” - and colours of earth, clay, terracotta woods and natural dyes, complemented by bright accent tones. Ceramics are a key focus, with 15 new potters including pieces where “a wobbly hand draws an imperfect pattern on slip-decorated pots.”
There is an early capsule for outdoor use, with new ceramics introduced for summer dining, and details that bring the concept into everyday settings, such as a cushion with a print by artist Emma Carlow inspired by cyanotype techniques, with hand-painted elements so each one varies. Later, the focus moves towards bedding and “top of bed”, with lighter-weight bedspreads and throws for the earlier part of the season, before shifting into colder-weather layers and, eventually, the festive table and gifting as the year winds down.
Words by Alice Simkins Vyce.
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