Beloved fashion and homeware brand TOAST got the memo: Thursday is the new Friday. And so what better way to anticipate the return of the weekend than throwing an exhibition inside one of Cavendish Square's most beautiful buildings, right in the heart of London?
Titled, like its Autumn/Winter 2025 collection, The Curious Mind (through September 7), the three-day showcase launched last night with a temporary, multi-room installation bringing together curated clothing and decor from the house, along with imaginatively reinvented second-hand furniture pieces, floating paper sculptures, delicate embroidery, crafty collectibles, and more.
Drinks were flowing, South London-based concept-choir WOOM's deeply resonating harmonies filled the main room with warmth as soon as they began to perform, and from the moment I stepped inside the Grade II-listed Georgian Townhouse that hosted the event, all I saw was photographers, designers, makers, writers, and artists mingling their way into the night — exchanging ideas, sharing project updates, meeting for the first time after years of admiring each other's work, chatting, laughing. Creatives coming together to celebrate not just the opening of yet another design exhibition in London, but what they love and dedicate themselves to most.
The concept for The Curious Mind, in both its purchasable form and collateral exhibition, TOAST's creative director, Laura Shippey, explains, came from a quote by pioneering modernist painter Georgia O'Keeffe. She said that "interest is the most important thing in life," as "happiness is temporary, but interest is continuous." That's exactly what the brand, helmed by CEO Suzie de Rohan Willner since 2015, is striving to do with this weekend-long activation: to stimulate people's desire to learn new, crafty skills, and do so while nurturing a sense of community.
Continuing until tomorrow, The Curious Mind complements its physical setup with a calendar of inspiring activities offered free of charge on-site. These include a panel talk hosted by author and journalist Pandora Skykes, who will speak on the art of "living curiously"; a bookbinding workshop organised in collaboration with the London Centre for Book Arts, expanding on printed matter as an invaluable source of inspiration; and a still life class held by artist Kuda Mushangi.
Throughout the pop-up duration, you might be lucky enough to catch poetry writing by Seán Hewitt, reading sessions fronted by authors and poets, and soundscapes conceived for the occasion by musician Alice Boyd.
The experience kicks off downstairs, where some of the latest TOAST designs, including clothing, accessories, and home finds, are presented within a grid-like, suggestive gallery room on top of white podiums. Surrounded by retro TVs screening snippets from the brand's newest campaign, the space acts as a window into its material-led microcosm and creative vision, also thanks to the inclusion of posters from the previous collections.
Past the bar on the first floor, visitors are met by independent paper makers Cave Paper Studio's poetic installation, The Rhythm of Papermaking, which, obtained from Belgian flax fiber and hand-dipped in natural dyes of indigo, black, pomegranate rind, and black walnut hull, hints at the vibrancy of their native Arizona's desert landscapes.
Beyond their multi-sheet, undulating totems is a selection of second-hand furniture pieces whose surfaces have been granted new life ahead of the show: using waste pigment from TOAST's production, Hannah Rafaat has recast a mid-century modern Bröderna Andersson solid oak armchair into a masterpiece of traditional Japanese patchworking, the abstract motifs impressed onto its denim blue surface capturing her flair for boro stitching.
A few steps further into the same space lies illustrator and textile designer Madeleine Kemsley's makeover of an Ercol Windsor armchair, whose buttery upholstered body provides the canvas for a woven, fantastical pond-like setting.
Wrapped in quilted textile sculptures or signature TOAST items that have been given a more irreverent, openly narrative twist through textural smocking and fabric insertions, the unfinished, pale terracotta-hued walls and vertiginously tall ceilings of 14 Cavendish Square become an artwork of their own.
Conveying the familiar feeling of a domestic experience, second-hand furniture platform Vinterior has devised a Reading Room which, located to the front of the building on the first floor, delights with a wealth of coffee table books, yellowed vintage orange Penguin classics, design collectibles, and carefully curated nooks for conversation and repose.
Whether you are a devoted TOAST fan or, simply, curious, the answer is in the exhibition's title: you are in the right place.
