One Day With Toad: A Fall '26 Design Team Q&A

Fall isn't about doing more, it's about noticing more... the crunch of leaves underfoot, the long way home, the feel of your favorite flannel on the first chilly morning. This season, our design team looked to those everyday moments – the routines, the happy accidents, and small connections that make life feel full – to inspire a collection built for real life, and we sat down with the design team to hear how it all came together.

Finding Joy in the Everyday

Toad: What inspired this season?

Guin: Honestly, the craziness of the world inspired it, and this season is about finding ways to stay grounded and grateful in everyday moments – appreciating the fullness of life and all its quirks, from our routines to the happy accidents to the unexpected coincidences. There's beauty in the imperfection, and we wanted the collection to reflect that sense of presence and perspective.

Toad: What does that look like day to day?

Guin: The moments that make you feel present – walking the dogs, an afternoon tea, crisp apples on a fall day – along with getting out into the world, whether that's exploring locally or traveling beyond your backyard. Discovering new music and art, people-watching, meeting someone new and hearing their story: those moments of connection and curiosity fuel everything we do.

"There's beauty in the imperfection."

The Colors and Textures of Fall

Texture continues to play a defining role in this season's fall wardrobe, with a rich mix of waffle and pointelle knits, shaker stitches and cables, seed stitches, herringbones, dobbies, crepes, and marled yarns, each adding its own depth and dimension, and the Manzana crepe is a standout that reinvents itself across categories, working as easily as a dress as it does a cozy insulated layering piece.

The season's color story unfolds across four palettes. Moonscape grounds the collection in purples and greens – soft, dusty mid-purples alongside sage-tinged greens like laurel, yucca, and wintergreen, played against earthier, soil-rich tones that together capture a balance of freshness and grounding, like moss pushing through cracks in the pavement. Alpine moves through blue-greens and teals, anchored by tones of cilantro and Alpine blue, with mauvey foxglove stepping forward as the central player, softened by tinted pinks and set against clay and deeper reds. Port offers a playful twist on Americana, where red, white, and blue are reimagined with depth and warmth through rich burgundy tones, paired with grounding deep blues like canal and brightened by clearer shades like shore. And Dew rounds things out as the season's refined neutral, built to layer seamlessly with the rest as it moves through a creamy gradient – almond, limestone, and salt into mid-browns like khaki and honey brown – elevated by bestselling blues like true navy, midnight, and shore, with a subtle warmth in dew itself for an inviting, versatile balance.

Thoughtful Design

Toad: Tell us about a piece that looks simple but has real thought behind it.

Lillian: The Rosalie Square Neck LS Tee is one of my favorites, an easy layering piece with a femme square neckline, subtle picot trim, and great fabric options in both rib solids and '90s-inspired stripes. It looks simple at first glance, but the details make it the long sleeve you reach for day after day through fall and winter, proof that a great tee is anything but basic.

Helena: Our Roame reversible jackets are the perfect example, since the whole franchise is fully reversible, one side quilted and the other not, so each season we're really designing two jackets in one: an easy, go-to exterior in great seasonal colors, and a completely different interior with contrast trims and details. We even developed a special label inspired by vintage '70s and '80s outerwear to give the franchise some extra nostalgic weight.

Guin: One of our denim styles is a great example, too. At first glance it feels like a classic, easy jean, but there's a lot of intention built in, starting with organic cotton denim with just a touch of stretch and our Flexform waistband for extra comfort as you move through the day. For finishing, we use laser technology to create the wash variations, which gives that familiar, lived-in look of traditional denim while significantly reducing water use and overall chemical impact.

Toad: Any early guesses on this fall's go-to pieces?

Helena: The moment there's the slightest chill, I'm reaching for my Manzana Quilted Jacket, and people stop me in the grocery store to ask about it – the eclectic print combo goes with everything and gives any outfit a little extra personality.

Guin: The Boundless Jersey LS Tee is my fall-winter go-to, a great layering piece with the perfect proportions, a little boxy, with heritage details like a chunky rib and shark-tooth stitch built in. And the Piñon Soft Denim Shirt, for both men's and women's fall clothing, is an instant classic, with that familiar, vintage indigo look you'd hope to find at a thrift store, but better, since the TENCEL Lyocell™ blend gives it a drapey, ultra-soft, next-to-skin feel that vintage denim can't match. Wear it open as a lightweight jacket alternative, or tuck it in and belt it for a western-inspired look – nostalgic and modern, with comfort woven right in.

Patterns Are Personal

Toad: Where did this season's prints and patterns come from?

Helena: We leaned into prints that feel drenched in color and saturation, almost overdyed, except we've done the overdyeing for you, so you can skip the afternoon with a stock pot and a squeeze bottle of fabric dye – from personal experience, that always gets mixed results.

Toad: Help us understand "patterns are personal."

Helena: I love this question. Sometimes you go shopping for a new pair of wool socks because your old camp socks finally gave out, and somehow you come home with the socks and a Wasatch sweater – how'd that happen? It's emotional, the same way a cheery sweater with a big yellow sunflower can be exactly the lift you need on a gloomy day.

Guin: Prints and patterns are like art in that they evoke something different in everyone. People are drawn to color combinations that complement their complexion, or feel a personal connection to a specific flower, landscape, or creature, and that's what makes them so emotional and individual – beyond trend, they resonate on instinct: nostalgic, expressive, or simply joyful in a way that's uniquely personal.

"Sometimes you go out shopping for wool socks… and somehow come home with a Wasatch sweater."

Toad: A printed piece you can picture people styling differently?

Helena: The W's Wasatch Vest is one of the most versatile pieces in the lineup, layered over a Foothill Pointelle Crew to keep your core warm through the chilly months, then worn just as easily as a tank with an Airscape Midi Skirt come spring.

Guin: Our Re-form flannel is a fun one, too, since a plaid flannel shirt is a classic that can be styled so many ways: as an overshirt with a graphic tee and baggy denim, layered with color and texture under a sweater buttoned all the way up, or tucked into blue jeans with a sneaker and a femme accessory layered on top.

"Patterns are personal."

What the Designers Are Wearing

Toad: What's your personal favorite piece this fall?

Lillian: The Manzana Tiered Midi Dress is my go-to, effortlessly flattering and available in prints that feel special, with a smocked back waist that gives it all-day comfort, which is non-negotiable for me, and peasant sleeves and a tiered skirt that add just the right amount of detail.

Helena: There's always one style each season that becomes my teacher's pet, and this season it's the Sespe Sherpa Vest, with an easy zip front, cozy welt pockets, a soft V-neck for a vintage, feminine feel, and a length that's just right – not too long, not too short.

Guin: I think the Cloudcover Cardigan came out beautifully. It's the perfect weight for layering, with a rich, dimensional color from the mélange yarn, and sweet details like the pearlized buttons, the allover cable texture, and the tiny rolled edge at the collar make it feel especially thoughtful, with a hand-feel that's just as lovely as it looks.

Toad: What detail or design note are you most proud of this season?

Lillian: The W's Wasatch Crew Sweater in the Cattail Jacquard Pattern, featuring a cow, feels extra special to me since I grew up on a small farm and have a deep love for animals, and it's emotional yet endlessly wearable in a neutral palette you'll cherish for years.

Guin: The Cabinside Collection feels very "Toad" to me, since both the fabric and styling carry OG heritage vibes, with real coziness in the hand-feel – a herringbone texture in a fleece fabrication with colorful neps for texture. The women's style reads like a cardigan sweater, but a little less precious, something you can really knock around in, while the men's is a collared style with cord details, handsome and easy-care.

30 Years of Toad

This year marks Toad&Co's 30th birthday, and we couldn't let it pass without celebrating where we started. Back when we were a small business in Telluride, Colorado, we sold fleece hats called toques, made from deadstock and scrap fabric, and they were such a hit that they've stayed a fixture in Toad's history ever since.

Helena: To celebrate 30 years, we remade the original toques using our own vintage samples as reference, staying true to our roots by sourcing deadstock fabric, using our own scraps, and even remaking the vintage labels from the original hats. It was such a fun process to dive into our own archives and celebrate a product that will always have a home in the Toad&Co line, no matter the decade.

What We Hope You Feel

Toad: If someone knew nothing about this collection, what do you hope they feel when they see it worn in the wild?

Lillian: I hope it feels lived-in and personal, comfortable in your own skin, wrapped in something cozy, and expressive in a way that feels effortless and authentic.

Helena: I like to think our clothes carry an air of unexpected familiarity. A woman once stopped me to ask about the print on a flannel jacket liner – "It looks just like a sleeping bag I had as a kid," she said – and that's exactly what I hope people feel: excitement and nostalgia, reframed into the clothes you'll reach for day after day.

"We hope our clothes feel unexpectedly familiar."

"The clothes you reach for day after day are the ones worth thinking about most."

That's the thread running through Fall '26 – a season built not around trend, but around the small, sustainable clothing choices that hold up to real life, from thoughtful design to responsible materials to pieces meant to be worn for years, not seasons, one day at a time.