Each TOAST Circle initiative serves a simple yet essential purpose: keeping well-crafted pieces in circulation. By extending the lifespan of our garments, we honour the people, time, and materials behind every stitch while reducing textile waste.
Last year our in-house Repair specialists mended 2,111 cherished pieces for our community through TOAST Repair, the free service we introduced in 2019 that gives worn garments a second life. The initiative breathes new life into pieces while preserving time-honoured mending techniques such as Japanese sashiko, translated as “little stabs,” and knitwear darning. The skill of creative repair may have faded from popularity in modern times, but we are proud to play a small role in sustaining it.
Repairing a garment adds character and a unique patina - a new chapter in the wearer’s story. The process is both physical and emotional; a mindful act that fosters empathy and a deeper connection to our possessions.
Previously loved clothing retains a trace of its wearer. Sometimes garments are passed on to new homes; sometimes they’re rediscovered by the original owner. In our new series, Mending Matters, we share stories from our community and meet the Repair specialists stitching new stories into their cherished garments.
After meeting at art school in Plymouth, June and Tony Thornton spent many years living and working in London. The beautiful town of Marlow, Buckinghamshire, is now home and their appreciation for the arts is as strong as ever.
“I must have had this cardigan for 25 years,” June says, wearing one of our neat wool cardigans she recently had repaired. “I’ve got photos of me wearing it at art school, rubbing my elbows on the table while working away. Naturally, it started to wear away from all that use.”
The elbow areas were reinforced with Swiss darning, recreating the knitted structure that had worn away. The cardigan remains a staple in June’s wardrobe. Her fondness for the knit grows with time as it is touched by positive experiences and associations; its imperfections bring to mind the hands of makers, menders, and wearers it has passed through. “I love seeing the mark of a person – I believe it enhances the character of the item.”
Tony’s Japanese-inspired shirt was bought in our Marylebone shop at least 20 years ago. “The fabric is now softer and more supple than the day I bought it,” Tony says, "it had worn and frayed around the collar.” Using an age-old collar-turning technique, our Repair specialist Kay revived the shirt. “Collar turning essentially involves unpicking a collar from a shirt, turning it over, and then restitching it in place,” Kay says, “The worn part of the collar then becomes hidden again, making the upper part like new.”
Karlotta Freier is an accomplished artist and illustrator, originally from Germany. Now living in Williamsburg, New York, she is a frequent visitor to our Brooklyn shop. “I discovered TOAST on Instagram because I follow an illustrator called Molly Martin and decided to join a repair workshop she was running,” Karlotta recalls. “When I found out that TOAST was opening a shop in Brooklyn, I was over the moon. Now, I own many TOAST items.”
One of her most reached-for garments, a blue linen jumpsuit, started to show signs of wear after regular use. It had become a favourite piece, so donating it wasn’t the remedy for now. “The colour is what first drew me to it, and I just felt so comfortable in it,” Karlotta explains. “It's loose and the fabric is very soft, and it moves nicely on the body.”
Karlotta visited her local TOAST shop with her well-loved jumpsuit in tow, where she met Dante, one of our skilled Repair specialists. He mended the holes in her jumpsuit with a contrasting woven darning technique, but the true highlight was the invaluable repair tips he shared, empowering Karlotta on her own mending journey. “I had used a double thread for repairs, but I saw Dante using a single thread and admired how delicate it was in comparison,” she says. “My repair skills have naturally improved with his guidance.”
Damage often signals the love of a garment, but sometimes it occurs accidentally. Karen Wickham bought a TOAST cashmere jumper several years ago, but decided to keep it stashed away until the weather called for an extra layer. Come autumn, she pulled it from storage to find it peppered with moth holes. “It was upsetting because it meant I couldn't wear it straight away,” she says. “But then I started to explore darning techniques.”
After using simple darning to mend this particular piece of knitwear, Karen was inspired to progress her skills. She started attending drop-in sessions at the TOAST Oxford shop and met Kay, our in-house Repair specialist. “I began regularly visiting Kay in the store, and that's how I learned to mend holes using patching and sashiko.” Kay invited Karen to sit by her side as she worked to observe the various techniques. “In the past, I would have likely thrown worn pieces away,” Karen says. “Now that I have the skills, I see the damage as an opportunity.”
Like Karlotta, Julia Tejblum is based in New York. She is a faculty member of the Harvard Writing Program and a lecturer in English Literature. She refers to the TOAST item she had repaired as her “teaching shirt,” a white button-down she bought as a graduate student in Oxford, UK. “I had just started teaching and felt self-conscious that I looked young, but this shirt made me feel put-together and professional,” she laughs. “I wore it for years and years, but every day I carried a heavy bag full of my books and eventually it tore the loop neckline of the shirt.”
When the first TOAST shop opened in Brooklyn, New York, Julia was quick to bring her shirt in for mending. She opted for an invisible repair because she wanted to preserve the understated appearance of the shirt. It was returned to her steamed, with several rows of delicate, hardly distinguishable stitches, ready for many more years of wear. While it still reminds Julia of her time in England, it will now see her through a different phase of life as she raises her daughter on the Upper West Side. “It had been sitting in my closet since before the pandemic, so I’ve been excited to wear it again.”
Simon Carr, an Oxford-based innovation consultant, has also benefited from Kay’s repair skills. “I'm chronically useless at fine-detailed tasks,” he confesses. “Luckily, I was able to bring my trousers to Kay.” When a handful of small moth holes appeared on a pair of green wool trousers he bought from TOAST, Kay stepped in to help. “I think it’s fabulous how every repaired garment becomes a unique piece of work.” Of all the techniques introduced to him, sashiko appeals the most. “There’s something spiritual about it which I like. Visible repairs create something quite special that you can continue to wear with pride.”
Bring any TOAST clothing item in need of repair to any of our shops and discuss our free TOAST Repair mending options with a TOAST Shop colleague. If you are able to visit TOAST Bath, Edinburgh, London Notting Hill, London Shoreditch or Oxford, you have the opportunity to spend time with a repair expert to discuss creative mending options, learning the best approach for extending the lifespan of your garment.
We would love to hear from you if you have had a special piece repaired by us; please leave a comment below or use the hashtag #TOASTrepair on Instagram.
Words by Bébhinn Campbell.
Photography by Ash Bean & Marco Kesseler.
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