The Rhythm of Papermaking

In a former gas station on the north side of Tucson, Arizona, light spills through skylights onto wet paper pulp. “The building was originally a gas station, built in the early 1940s,” says Zoë Goehring, who runs Cave Paper from this repurposed space in a neighbourhood of early twentieth-century houses and rain-harvested gardens. “We have skylights that allow some natural light in, and we have old saltillo tile floors, something very classic that you’ll see in Tucson, with little paw prints from dogs walking on them when they were being made.” Those paw prints feel fitting - Zoë’s rescue dog Ramona is the studio’s ever-present companion. “She’s truly part of the studio’s daily rhythm, always keeping an eye on things.”

Cave Paper was founded in 1994 in Minneapolis, in a basement space so dark and cool it was nicknamed “the cave.” Zoë took over in 2020, purchasing the business and relocating it to Tucson, where she grew up. “It began in the basement of a historic warehouse with very dark rock walls, and the name became synonymous with the paper itself.”

Zoë has aimed to continue production of the original catalogue - a library of richly textured papers - while gradually creating new designs inspired by the surrounding desert. She began making paper in 2009, in the bathtub of a college apartment, using a blender, recycled shredded paper and window screens for molds. “What drew me to paper making then really holds true for me now - it’s such a transformational process. Starting with one material and breaking it down, then reassembling it into something new.”

That sense of cyclical transformation underpins her practice. Before Cave Paper, Zoë spent five years co-managing a small vegetable farm. Her knowledge of plants and the rhythm of the seasons informs her daily work, as she waits for the sheets to dry in the hot summer sun. “Something that I’ve noticed about people who make paper too, there is often a strong connection to growing plants… I think there’s a natural connection between caring for plants and papermaking.”

Each sheet begins with Belgian flax fibre - “the same fibre that’s used to make linen textile.” Soaked overnight, it’s then pulped in a century-old Hollander beater, before being sheet-formed by hand and hung to dry. Later, natural dyes are layered onto the surface - cooked in batches from pomegranate rinds, black walnut hulls and indigo. “Yesterday, I cooked a big pot of black walnut dye, and I think tomorrow I’ll be using pomegranate rind, which gives a beautiful sunshine yellow colour,” Zoë says. As the inky black walnut dye cooks, the smell of a forest floor fills the air.

To celebrate our Autumn Winter 2025 collection, Zoë has collaborated with TOAST Visual Merchandising Manager, Paula Ellis, to create 1,200 sheets of paper for sculptural window installations. “Paula has created a really wonderful design,” says Zoë. “The papers will all be floating in these beautiful columns.”

“Our Autumn Winter collection is inspired by the concept The Curious Mind, which celebrates the spirit of curiosity, contemplation and a lifetime of learning,” says Paula. “For September, we focused on the idea of a library room, those timeless, hushed spaces of thought and reflection. I was particularly inspired to create large-scale installations that felt like physical expressions of reading, like the sensation of flicking through the pages of a book. A key visual reference was bookbinding, particularly the concertina fold.”

The papers, some dipped up to eight times, draw on the season’s colour palette and feature loosely geometric patterns. “The textures and colours are deeply tactile and rooted in nature,” says Paula. “Natural dyes such as indigo and pomegranate rind gave us a rich blue-green that harmonises with the hues found across both our womenswear and menswear collections,” she says.

Though many of the patterns come from Cave Paper’s original catalogue, others - like the pomegranate-dyed sheet - are newer additions. “The pomegranate rind is a dye that I started working with because we have a real abundance of pomegranates growing here,” says Zoë. “I wanted to make a dye out of a material that felt really connected to Tucson.”

The process of creating the papers celebrates the season’s exploration of “materiality, experimentation and making by hand,” says Paula. “We played with natural dye combinations, layering colour and texture through trial and error, embracing what emerged. That kind of creative enquiry, where nothing is fixed, and everything is subject to change and re-evaluation, sits at the heart of The Curious Mind.”

Both the window installations and the clothes displayed alongside them are rooted in “natural fibres, handcraft and careful attention to process,” Paula says. “The kantha stitching in some of the garments echoes the binding of books, with small but intentional stitches that both hold and embellish. There’s a beautiful parallel between the way garments and installations are constructed and the way stories are held together.”

Zoë wears the TOAST Stripe Linen Cotton Sweater.

Words by Alice Simkins Vyce.

Photography by Anna Zajac.