TOAST Renewal Auction
At TOAST, we have long viewed our garments as a resource to recycle rather than waste. We strive to increase the longevity of garments, looking at the thoughtful and artistic ways we can give new life to TOAST pieces.
As part of our ongoing partnership with Crafts Council UK, we asked eight experienced textile artists from across the world to renew selected TOAST pieces from our archive collection. Using remnant fabric and faulty garments from production, each piece was repaired, renewed and transformed using a variety of textile techniques.
In keeping with each maker’s unique style and artistic approach, the garments were renewed with great attention to detail - from hand embroidered collars and patchworking to visible mending and appliquéd shapes.
The finished pieces were auctioned online in May 2021, raising over £3,200 for Crafts Council UK.
Arounna Khounnoraj
Based in Toronto, Canada, Arounna uses traditional techniques such as visible mending, appliqué and patchworking to explore pattern, colour and image. In her practice she also uses the slow, therapeutic process of hand embroidery to create versatile, wearable garments.
Arounna renewed a swingy cotton shirt with hand appliquéd shapes.
Amy Isles Freeman
From her Brighton studio, Amy creates bold and joyous works that celebrate the strength of women.There is a fluidity and sense of ease to her painting, characterised with graphic and gestural lines and shapes.
Amy hand painted two pieces; A pair of denim dungarees with large, gestural hand painted motifs and a canvas workwear jacket with contrasting painted motifs.
Alice Burnhope
Alice uses traditional quilting techniques combined with new technologies to create interactive, sensory works of art from her South London studio. Utilising reclaimed materials where she can, many of her wearable designs are inspired by nature and dyed in a soft, plant-based palette of dusty pinks and pale ochres.
Alice embroidered an apron with patches of shapes at the pockets and bib and a coat with subtle areas of embroidery at the collar and cuffs and a statement quilted emblem at the belt.
Rashmi Bidasaria
Originally from Mumbai but also based in London, Rashmi works across many different materials and mediums, often blurring the lines between materials and their conventional uses.
Rashmi embellished a shirt with a gauzy thread at the front and a shirt dress with subtle, intricate rows of motifs at the back, tufted by hand.
Tiffany Mumford
Tiffany is drawn to the narratives that imperfections and previous mends can have, using her own stitches to add to each garment's unique story from her studio in Brixton, South London.
Tiffany renewed a jumpsuit, creating playful hand embroidered stitched motifs down each sleeve. She also renewed an embroidered cotton dress with hand embroidered stems and flowers at the lower hem.
Hannah Refaat
Based in London, Hannah uses the landscape and environment of the Middle East to inform her designs, utilising a combination of traditional Middle Eastern and Western embroidery techniques.
Hannah renewed a wrap dress with embroidered motifs, and a raglan shirt with contrasting stitches and fabric blocks throughout.
Isabel Fletcher
Taking inspiration from the overlooked details of the everyday, Isabel’s textile works often expose raw edges and visible stitches. Using offcuts and discarded fabrics as her starting point, she allows the unique shape, colour and texture of the fabric to inform her compositions.
Isabel appliquéd our cotton parka with canvas patchwork and paths of stitching throughout. She also repaired our indigo denim dungarees and applied remnant fabric patches to our dogtooth shirt.
Richard McVetis
Using labour-intensive hand embroidery to explore our perception of space and time, Richard’s process is slow and almost ritualistic, with each piece becoming a map of the human hand.
Richard took our wool coat and intricately embroidered it with hand stitched covered areas at the pockets, on the top button and on the back vent.
Read our article, Reviving and Reinventing, on the TOAST Magazine for more information.