This thread is my favourite. i have been a long time lover of Toast clothes. i started buying their clothes around 2002 (possibly before) after I had my first child: he is 18 now! i wore two Toast pairs of trousers that winter after his birth and a mustard coloured jumper from the knitwear range The trousers were a moleskin velvety jeans that were boot cut: a gold pair and a silver grey pair. Toast has been a regular part of my wardrobe ever since. At that time I was a 10/12 but now, menopausal, i am firmly a 12/14 :(
Like other posters, i am busty: very much an apple with a large bust and slim legs and bottom half. For at least the last ten years i have favoured the dresses and they must make up 25% of what i wear each season. i am sitting here in the Anni dress: i love it. i resisted buying it as the print seemed simlar to two dresses i bought last summer, one in blue and one in green but it is so different and very flattering. i aso love the Ume dresses this season (have both colurways) and the honeycomb print dress which i have yet to wear but which is fab. I have the tie neck dresses in navy and green and couldn't do without them: really love the cut for a larger bust. Really love the prairie print dresses in pink and blue too: similar cut to the blue and green tie necks.
i am sending back the agnes leaf print dress (too much material), the crosshatch floral (need a smaller bust) and the annika print dress (unflattering).
i am lucky: I live equidistant betewen the Hampstead and Islington shops so occiassionaly visit at start of the season to try the styles, work out the cut and fit and build a wishlist for full price and for sale. Toast are quite mean with their discounts but can get 20% off for recomend a friend if the friend then orders. What I love about their shops is that they have younger and older staff, all dressed in toast clothing and all equally able to style it to look effortlessly cool. i love the early comments about the clothes and what our occupations and hobbies mioght be: Guardian journalists, potters and carrot growers - i'll take all of those thank you! i can never work out why people come on to slag off a clothing brand thread that is aimed at its lovers. I'm not a fan of Karen Millen clothing but equally I am not likely to go onto a thread to criticise those who are: we are all individual.
Regarding the postage, for a while i had a deal with them as a regular customer where i got free express delivery and free returns. i got it as a valued customer (who spent a lot)!. They stopped it very recently and when I asked why it had stopped they said this (last month): "The Kindred offer has been removed as a free service for all customers. We are launching the Annual Post Pass in the next few weeks which is a payable service that provides the free delivery option for a whole calander year. The Kindred offer was never going to be a long-term offer, it was a temporary thank you to our most loyal customers". I figure that the postage is the same as the bus fare to one of their shops for me and significantly less than the carparking charge if i were to drive to one of the shops.
About ten or eleven years ago i visited their original shop in south wales which now stocks ends of lines and absoulte bargains (not sure if it is still there). I bought a wonderful silk dress for under £20 and some jeans. i have a lovely picture of my boys, who were about 7 and 5 at the time, sitting together in a sinlgle armchair, patiently waiting and not fighting for once as I tried on half the shop.
in terms of other brands, i couldn't live without Cos, have a fair number of the looser Orla Kiely dresses, coats and bags and also love select pieces from Kin, Plumo and Rew. H & M and Zara can also come up trumps if you look carefully.
i hope that when this thread fills up that we will create a new one: i have found my tribe! x