Toast reach their apogee in the 'Toast 15' collection Toast's down-to-earth clothes have won the company legions of fans over the past 15 years. Photographs by Nick Seaton. Earlier this summer, Jamie Seaton took a trip to India. Seaton is a seasoned traveller, but this was a particularly hot and humid trip. It was 48 degrees. Everyone was dying for the monsoon to come,' he said. But he had a busy schedule in the markets of Old Delhi. Different areas specialise in fabrics, buttons, spices. It's like diving into a maze.' He was on a mission to source fabrics, talk to specialist garment makers and finesse embroideries and hand-stitched details for a special collection that goes on sale on Monday. Toast 15 is a small, carefully chosen selection of 15 pieces in very limited editions of between 11 and 32 (including an uncompromising long coat in Scottish-woven pinstripe wool that Seaton describes as 'quite hard and old-fashioned', an elegant and easy Indian woven crepe dress, and a wonderfully luxurious cardigan made from super-heavy-gauge cashmere) designed to celebrate 15 years of Toast, the company Seaton started in 1997 with his wife, Jessica. James Seaton, the founder of Toast, in Old Delhi, researching fabric Jamie and Jessica met in 1974 at the University of Birmingham, where they were studying archaeology and ancient history. They moved to Wales to work together on an archaeological dig but instead, spurred on by Jessica's interest in dyeing wool with natural pigments, set up a knitwear business together. In 1978 they bought a knitting machine with money they had been given as a wedding present and called themselves J&J Seaton. Their knitwear was sold in Browns, Whistles and Matches, as well as in Japan and America. But by 1997 they wanted to do something different. The times had changed. The knitwear we were doing that had been fashionable was getting less fashionable and our aesthetic was changing,' Seaton said. Toast was great. It was a clean slate and we could do whatever we wanted, as simple as can be. They launched Toast ('Jess dreamt the name up out of the blue,' Seaton said) with a poster catalogue selling six pairs of exquisitely simple pyjamas, two gowns and a rug. 'Our pyjamas were not trying to be anything other than comfortable and comforting,' Seaton said. Since then they have opened 11 shops (the first in 2001 in their local town of Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, and the most recent in Marylebone, London) and expanded their empire, which now includes homewares and menswear, with an annual turnover of £15 million. Djellaba in Scottish-woven herringbone cashmere. £595, 24 available (toast.co.uk) Toast is a small company at heart, with its base in Swansea, not too far from where Jamie and Jessica live in a house they bought 27 years ago. They employ 15 people in the design studio, and there is a warehouse down the road for distribution. Jamie, who is a bit of a dreamer and an idealist, looks after the brand's creative direction, while Jessica takes control of the business. Their daughter, Rachel, 32, works for them as the content editor for the website, and their son, Nick, 27, is an established photographer who frequently shoots their look books and campaigns. He accompanied his father on this summer's trip to India and documented their travels. 'I love travelling with Nick,' Seaton said, 'although I'm not sure what he would say if you asked him.' Nick also shot the autumn womenswear look book in the hill towns of Abruzzo and then in the Tusheti mountains of Georgia, along with the menswear closer to home on the misty beaches of St Ives. The winter collection was shot by him, too, in Sweden. 'His style is all about calmness, serenity and light,' Seaton said. One of the things that has helped Toast achieve its cult following is these exotic shoot locations. Every season a model is photographed somewhere you would like to be yourself. Their first location shoot was in Lanzarote and since then they have travelled to Crete, Majorca, Patagonia and Argentina. Toast inhabits a world that is all a bit of an adventure, often a house filled with shafts of sunlight, or an artist's studio, or an amazing bit of countryside you would love to walk in. And so wearing the clothes takes you a little closer to the dream, even if it is just a paisley scarf that looks so at home in the hills of Tusheti. There is an authenticity about Toast's clothes - both for men and women - that allows them to stand outside fashion's trends and whims. Seaton loves army uniforms and traditional peasant clothes from around the world, and they inspire many a detail or a cut in everything from shirts to coats. The Toast 15 Jacket #1 has a military look to it, with the extra detail of the hand-embroidered badges that stops it from looking too austere. There are only 22 of them, made from Indian-woven light wool twill with one thick line of old silver zardozi work. The hand-embroidered badges are like mini-samplers in cross-stitch. The lining varies from jacket to jacket; some are silk herringbone, others in vintage printed sari silks or Benares brocade. Similarly, for Shirt #2, Seaton found enough tussah silk in the market in its own natural gold colour to make 11 shirts. It is finished with traditional kantha-stitched pin tucks. The collection wouldn't be Toast without a djellaba. The Seatons first came across the djellaba on their travels in Egypt, and Jamie spends his Saturday mornings wearing his as something of a ritual. There is usually a unisex djellaba in the Toast collection (there are currently two variations available in flannel and linen) but for Toast 15 they have adapted an autumn/winter 2000 design for the ultimate deluxe version made (in London) from the softest Scottish-woven herringbone cashmere. #2 in fine tussah silk in natural pale gold, Kantha-stitched pin tucks and silk-covered, embroidered buttons. £285, 11 available And then there are the pyjamas. In a limited edition of 24, they are made from two fine layers of hand woven Dacca muslin, hence the price of £245. These are for the pyjama connoisseur. The cut is classic Toast with boyish, clean lines. But it's all about the experience of wearing them. 'They are made from incredibly fine, hand-woven cotton,' Seaton said. The cotton is grown in Dhaka, where it is woven. It exists in very small quantities. They are a bit of an anachronism, like plucking something from 150 years ago. Everything is machine-made now, everyone is trying to minimise costs. On my part it's pure indulgence.'