Is toast knitwear worth the cost?

[museumum]

I really like two of this years slouchy jumpers from Toast but they're £155 and £140 respectively. Are they really worth it? Will they pill / wear out too easily? I'd want them to look good for a good few years at that price (and the styles i like are styles i would be happy to wear a few years). What do others think?

I have a lot of Toast knitwear, but I only buy in the sales or with one of their (rare) discount codes. I find it robust. All knitwear will will and need shaving, and I DO look after my knitwear, but having said that I’m still wearing a jumper from Toast that is at least 8 years old.

Will PILL. Thanks for nothing, autocorrect.

I am wearing a Toast jumper now, I bought it in the sale and I really love it! Couldn't have afforded it full price though.

@ilovecherries your autocorrect comment made me snort 😂

Agree you can't go wrong with Toast knitwear but they aren't indestructible. No knitwear will be though. Their designs certainly stand the test of time and seem to keep their shape from my experience.
Have you ordered from Toast before? If not I'm sure someone can post a referral code for you to use to take the price down slightly?

Personally I think the quality is poor for the price.
I prefer Brora , absolutely beautiful quality and so soft.
I tend to buy in the sales.

I only buy in the sales. One of the ribbed jumpers was poor quality. There was a hem around the neck which came apart. The same jumper in a different colour has had no issues.

I have 3 Toast jumpers, all merino wool, all wearing well. The oldest is about 12 years old - possibly my first Toast purchase - and still looking good. I do wash them carefully (and, to be honest, as sparingly as I can).

I've only ever had one quality issue with Toast and they replaced it straight away.

Well I’ve ordered so I’ll see for myself. I do think it’s probably overpriced but if the quality is excellent I’ll revise my opinion. In the end I ordered cause I love it and everything else that I had to look forward to just got cancelled due to Covid so if it makes me happy during this winter which otherwise looks quite crappy it’ll be worth it.

I’ve accumulated a fair bit of Toast knitwear over the years. Some of the more delicate knits do pill and all benefit from use of fabric shaver periodically. But generally they last pretty well and I would agree with the pp who said that the designs stand the test of time. I don’t think I can even remember what I used to wear beforehand, I’ve been wearing some of mine for so long

If anyone would like a referral code then DM me - it’s 15% at the moment (sorry if that comes too late for you OP, but you might want to treat yourself again in the sales as the discounts then really are fab!)

It’s not true that all knitwear pills, but the clothing industry has educated us via jaunty little hang-tag messages that it does. It drives me crazy. They can buy in yarn that won’t pill. It’s just more expensive than the blends they get in that look good for five seconds.

I have one beautiful merino jumper from a few years ago from Toast: not a pill. And a couple I had to ditch because the maintenance was just too much. I avoid their knitwear nowadays. Also I find them boxy, but that’s a preference thing.

When I said “all benefit from use of fabric shaver periodically” I’d meant all my Toast knitwear, but yes, not the merino ones actually. I also have a Benetton lambswool sweater that was my mother’s in the 1980’s (so >30 years old now) and which never pills! I noticed that Anna Murphy made reference to the resilience of old style knitwear recently too www.thetimes.co.uk/article/with-this-jumper-i-can-really-bring-my-a-game-95rclpf0s Is it a move towards using a different length of fibres that causes this? And is it inevitable if you opt for a fabric with a soft/fluffy appearance?

Yes, it’s to do with the spin on the fibre, and you absolutely can still find equipment that’ll make robust wool and manage to maintain softness - but that can’t do fluffy, really.

I think a lot of the problem is it’s simply too expensive to source yarns in Europe now so they go further afield and sadly with a lower price comes shit quality.