Sandy Liang (Q8788)
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American fashion label
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Sandy Liang |
American fashion label |
Statements
If the ’90s girls had Miu Miu, today’s generation have Sandy Liang. The designer who’s held the internet in a chokehold with the coquette-core trend for the past two years is now declaring that to be out, so instead next summer expect every girl in New York and beyond to dress like spies, except of course with the Liang touch. “I’m obsessed with a uniform. I’m especially obsessed with spy gear this season,” said the designer. “The spies inTotally Spies!always had gadgets and clothes that were cute but it was actually like a laser or something serious like that. I thought that was fun to explore for the season.”On the internet, Liang is known to best influence the crowd of ages 27 and younger. When her Baggu collaboration dropped, you not only saw the bag sell out within minutes thanks to its affordability, but those who missed it began to recreate her pieces so they could also look like the Liang girl on a budget. However, the brand’s best customers are not the high schoolers who wish to look like a Liang girl but the 9-5ers who can afford the pieces. The label’s collections in the past few seasons have skewed more childish, with school-inspired pleated skirts, but this season, the Liang girl is growing up and taking her first baby steps into the real world. She may have gotten her first corporate job and is dressing business casual on top with a short-sleeved puff blazer and capri set, but she’s also channeling her youth with a metallic pink kitten-heeled mule. She may not understand the importance of carrying cash (just in case of emergencies), so instead she’s leaving her house with no bag but a mini skirt with a hidden zippered pocket for only her driver’s license because her credit card is on her phone.Liang made things simple, utilizing a jersey fabrication for most of the collection. Going out mini dresses came in fun colors like Barbie pink and candy apple green but in basic silhouettes: When paired with the right accessory, like one of the new sequined chokers that debuted on the runway, the look was elevated from day to night (best represented by looks 14 and look 31 in the collection). A Liang collection is never complete without some satin, and this season some of the tunics worn as dresses during the show could double as coats when worn with the jeans also shown on the runway.In an intriguing statement, Liang ended her show notes with the line, “Each piece is password protected; only you can unlock it.
” Even though Liang herself is dreaming of a spy girl summer; perhaps it was a subtle hint that you can feel free to create your own fantasies in her designs.
8 September 2024
Sandy Liang was in the final few months of her first pregnancy while designing her resort collection. Maybe that’s why she looked to her own childhood for inspiration. “I thought it would be really fun to do an office edit of a little girl’s version of what a woman’s closet looks like,” the designer said. “So we did a lot of fun shirting and tailoring with a childish charm to it.”Liang’s approach to office wear included lots of two-in-one pieces like open knit cardigans with built-in contrasting tanks and button-up shirts with attached ties (all you have to do is fasten a button in the back), making it easy for customers to get full campaign looks despite their very real, very busy lives.Drawing inspiration from her honeymoon in Japan, Liang looked to the impeccably styled flight attendants of Japan Airlines. Inspired by their meticulous aesthetic, Liang envisioned how she would dress them if she had her way. Instead of the classic black, white, and red midi dresses that they currently wear, Liang whipped up pink pleated mini apron skirts, Sailor Moon bows, and heart-adorned belts for a youthful and playful touch.
10 June 2024
Sandy Liang is back on the official CFDA calendar and with good reason: 2023 was one of her most successful years to date. She sold out two Baggu launches in the presale stage, had a line as long as The Row’s at her first sample sale on Orchard Street, and one of K-pop’s biggest names, Jennie, wore and posted about her clothes to her 83 million Instagram followers. Those three events acted as a catalyst, especially for a smaller New York brand like Sandy Liang. These days you can’t go anywhere in the city without spotting a pleated skirt, ballet flat, phone case, or bow motif from Liang.The internet may have declared the bow as out for 2024, but Liang says otherwise. Her fall 2024 collection still showcased her signature motif but in more subtle ways so that it’s not so in your face. If last season we saw Liang’s bows exaggerated, this season they became miniature, acting as little button replacements on jackets. A tailored red pantsuit that looked like your standard workwear ’fit from the front featured a subtle tonal bow in the back.Standouts included regal long-sleeve A-line dresses in an array of pastel colors, including baby pink and sky blue. The dress’s silhouette was inspired by the Princess of Japan, Kako of Akishino, whose personal style during her imperial-family days included lots of ladylike and modest pieces, like midiskirt suits and high necklines. Perhaps thanks to her ultra-successful bag launch, Liang debuted leather bags this season—a treat for her Lower East Side fans, who are now able to shop head-to-toe looks from the designer.
11 February 2024
Sandy Liang is often inspired by groups of women who are matching—intentionally or not. “They don’t realize how beautiful they are when they’re standing together,” Liang said in her studio a few days before her spring runway presentation. She must have gotten a kick out of all the people attending her show, coordinating in their Sandy Liang low-rise pleated skirts, taffeta dresses, and pointe-shoe flats.In light of the Baggu collaboration last month—which sold out so quickly that the accessories company released an apology on Instagram—and equally successful launches of ballet flats and Salomon sneakers in the past year, it feels as though Liang is transcending her if-you-know-you-know status. Her downtown-princess uniform has been so consistent that it’s now instantly recognizable. The fact that it’s often memed reinforces its cultural relevance. “That’s the internet—they’ll take something and run with it, and you don’t necessarily get to decide,” Liang said, adding that the fleece that made her famous in the 2010s is not at the forefront anymore, and she’s happy with that. “My vision of myself and the customer’s vision of me are aligned for the first time in a long time,” she explained. “For a while it was this fleece, and people thought of me as a fleece designer. Which I understand, but I’m happy with it now. I finally feel like I can actually grab two things—don’t even look—and then put my hair in a braid.”Certainly, the additions for spring 2024 will fit in just fine. An image Liang returned to over and over was of the character Cecilia Lisbon inThe Virgin Suicides.The troubled teen wears an ill-fitting vintage lace dress with sturdy dad sandals. (Makes sense, as for her wedding, Liang wore a custom dress and Merrells.) On the runway, when models weren’t wearing Liang ballet flats, they were in Teva wedge sandals. Mermaidcore and Y2K also featured in the collection via shell accessories, graphic tees, and one bedazzled miniskirt.If there were two items that define Liang’s collection now the way the fleece used to, they would be pleated skirts and bows. Both were invigorated this season. The designer found herself drawn to a more corporate, working royal vision of a princess, with prim jackets and coordinating (if not exactly matching) skirts. Thankfully, the skirts were too mini or sheer or low-waisted for an actual state dinner.
She also found a new way to subvert expectations via a twinset in a sheer, sparkly fabric (an homage to Britney Spears’s “Toxic”). As for the bows, Liang developed shoulder bags that look from afar like just a giant bow tied over the shoulder. Those seem like a hit in the making.The collection closed with a bride in a mini sailor dress with an oversized collar, pleated skirt, and about a dozen bows on her person. Raucous applause followed, led by such front-row attendees as actors Lola Tung, Greta Lee, AnnaSophia Robb, and Rachel Sennott. Everything felt right, aligned, and—you could say—tied up in a bow.
10 September 2023
Sandy Liang has become a purveyor of downtown cool, but for resort she cast her eyes above 14th Street to the Upper East Side and its “decadent, sparkly, a little bit iridescent” approach to getting dressed. “She’s a little more polished and a little more trying to be put together,” she said, adding that downtown is “just a state of mind.”It’s an interesting observation that the lady uptown is consciously working to make her outfits look cohesive—think stereotypical skirt suits or matching handbags and shoes. But Liang is also fixated on this idea of “pre-styled” clothes that can take some of the mental load off. In her fall collection, she was attracted to items finished with bows and collars so the wearer didn’t need any more accessories. Those pieces did well with wholesale clients, according to Liang, and so she continued them here. Sailor tops with collars and tonal rosettes are one wearable example, as are the uniform-like knee-length dresses with pleated skirts, bows, and capelets.That said, Liang’s spirited and more affordable accessories have become a hit (see: the massive popularity of her ballet flats). While the dresses themselves don’tneedany embellishment, there’s nothing stopping you from, say, accessorizing with a floor-scraping bow or a fuzzy white bonnet or arm warmers.As those extras show, there’s a ballet theme to this collection. The pink-and-cream tweed, printed tops showing a swan on a blue lake, and pleats and bows look like they’re headed to a holiday showing ofThe Nutcracker. But as always there’s a rebellious spirit elsewhere. See: the teensy pleated skirts with eyelet panels in the back, super-cropped knits, and cutouts that require the wearer to either free the nipple or wear a bra worth exposing.
6 June 2023
If you posted a video of Sandy Liang’s fall show on TikTok, you could easily tag itcoquetteorballetcoreor perhapslight academia. But Liang was offering pinafores and prom dresses long before any of those terms became popular online. An all-but-official outfitter of the downtown cool set, she finds new ways to balance naivete and youth with spookiness, seduction, and a clientele who can drop upwards of $500 on a dress.All the bows and first-recital-worthy touches belie Liang’s intense practicality. This season, many of the dresses came “prestyled” with rosettes, sashes, and, in a few cases, capelets. Liang’s intention wasn’t to make the dresses more saccharine but rather more utilitarian. “I love the idea of wearing a dress and you’re doing everything in it,” she said at her showroom during model castings for the show. She calls out washing your hands and using the skirt of your dress as a towel and playing basketball as two activities that can be done in a uniform dress with built-in accessories. “You’re not being precious about it,” she said.That attitude is produced by the wearer, since at face value these clothes are pretty precious. A brown taffeta dress with a bow on the sternum and a cape in the back is fit for Clara inTheNutcracker. A pleated navy skirt could barely be more mini and was styled with baby blue leg warmers and two gray knits. A pair of minidresses with frilly hems came with prom queen–style sashes pinned with rosettes. These sugary, innocent outfits were toughened up by their proximity to puffers covered in dozens of bows, balaclavas, and lace-up pants elsewhere in the collection. (The true neutral was a white double-breasted, slightly puffed coat with a subtle Peter Pan collar.) Anything jejune was balanced by the models’ “I don’t care, I have places to be” attitude.The jersey offerings at the end were decidedly grown-up. A clingy red ankle-length dress was unabashedly sultry (not necessarily what you think of when you think of Liang’s work). The finale was a showstopping cherry red dress with a flowing bow and rosette smack-dab in the middle of the neckline. It was compelling and modern, while still referencing prom dresses of yore.The twisted doll motif was underscored by Hole’s “Doll Parts” playing in the finale. Courtney Love singing “I want to be the girl with the most cake” was as crucial an accessory as the dozens of bows adorning the models’ hair. Eat your heart out, TikTok.
11 February 2023
It’s interesting to see how Sandy Liang—whose downtown coquette vibe is well known among those who could point out Dimes Square on a map—finds new ways to riff on the concept of a uniform. Many of her key pieces are more adult versions of schoolgirl staples, making a Pace University auditorium a fitting setting for her show today.But her interests are not purely scholastic: on her moodboard was a picture of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy in a pair of loafers, tailored pants, sweater and headband, Will Truman and Grace Adler from Will & Grace in perfect black ’90s minimalism, and a paparazzi shot of Chloë Sevigny pushing a stroller in a white pleated mini dress. Outfits you could imagine the subjects wearing again and again.This season, Liang re-worked a classic khaki pleated skirt by adding a sweet eyelet petticoat underneath, and added skorts two ways: one with tailored pants under the skirt, and one with teensy shorts. On the more risqué end, there was a black dress that’s sheer except for panels in the shape of a bandeau and bikini. “You have your built in bra and your built in underwear,” Liang said.While many of these pieces were so eye-catching as to not require close inspection (see: the skirt with oval cutouts at the thighs, the patchwork dress with panels of blue satin, silver sequins, and pink gingham), the details deserve the spotlight. It’s where Liang sets herself apart. The squared-off bows at the backs of dresses, often resting above Watteau-esque pleats, were a nod to Marie Antoinette, though they looked like a modern interpretation of a princessy bow. Liang also pointed out the mutton sleeves that were all the rage in the Gilded Age. Bringing it back to the 21st century, there were credit card pockets attached to some of the bras.Liang spoke sweetly about the way she constructed the clothes to make sure they look good when the wearer is rushing to catch a train. The aforementioned Marie Antoinette bows had long trains to catch the wind, and the coats came with super high vents to flap behind you.There were a few items that felt like pandering to current trends—a corset, a pink glittery two piece set that could have been a costume in Josie and the Pussycats. But overall it felt like a pivotal season for Liang. The models were wearing head-to-toe Sandy—from the rosette hair ties to the newly released sold-out pointe shoe Mary Janes—for the first time.
What wasn’t on the runway was equally notable, namely the funky fleece jackets and pinafores that have been Liang’s most recognizable key pieces for years. They’re still for sale, but their absence cut down on the fan service in the show. The visual identity of Sandy Liang is evolving, two steps ahead of her customer’s already brisk clip.
11 September 2022
Behind-the-scenes photos of Sofia Coppola’sMarie Antoinettehave provided enduring inspiration for Tumblr archivists and fashion enthusiasts for 15 years. Something about seeing Kirsten Dunst and her co-stars dressed in their Rococo finery while using a MacBook or smoking a cigarette really makes the mind reel. Sandy Liang had an image of Dunst smoking a cigarette on her fall 2022 moodboard, along with a picture of a deconstructed Robe à la Française, vintage Polly Pockets, and a candid photo of an anonymous person dressed in all pink and walking in New York. Girly and grimy living in harmony.Liang describes this collection as “what I really want to make.” It may sound obvious, but it’s also easy to see how being a designer with obligations to wholesalers and clients may distract you from your internal compass of taste and whims. Liang is known for her not-too-prissy princess dresses and fun fleeces, but this season also offers boxy pants that you could easily wear to an office, a camel corduroy coat, and a riff on a trench coat featuring a Peter Pan collar. The coolest details are the two little bows on the backs of dresses and jackets, which feel like a nod to Marie Antoinette’s wardrobe without being saccharine. Liang is also offering new shoes: pointe shoe Mary Janes, available in several colors of satin and leather. She hopes they’ll become a signature for the brand. They’re a perfect distillation of her moodboard: a practical rendering of anti-utilitarian inspirations.
2 March 2022
The audience for Sandy Liang’s spring show assembled on the concrete steps outside Abrons Arts Center on Grand Street, looking representative of the brand’s ethos. This is true of many fashion shows—designers tend to invite celebrity fans and devoted customers—but at Liang’s it felt especially palpable that these were the people her clothes were for. And as well-dressed as the audience was, the models, with their pin-straight hair and smoky eye makeup, still stood out as the coolest girls at the party.Liang was inspired by the 1975 moviePicnic at Hanging Rock(the plot is not germane to the clothes, just know that the main cast wears white, eyelet, turn-of-the-century dresses), as well as Sofia Coppola’sMarie Antoinette(“every collection there’s a little bit of that,” Liang said), and Formula 1, which she got into during the pandemic. “We had a lot of fun layering all that,” Liang said. I walked away from the show remembering looks that felt plucked from an early-2000s music video—one model sauntered in a bedazzled cropped tank and low-slung pants—but the dressier pieces spoke to the highly feminine, dare I say, cottagecore, influences.It was a wearable collection. Anyone in the audience could have been wearing any of the looks (yes, including the blue coat with just eyelet undies underneath), and I wouldn’t have batted an eyelid. You had the Liang staples: school skirts, pinafores, a fleece vest. But Liang went a little out of her comfort zone this season to create new formalwear that was more intricate than what she’s done before. Take several white pieces consisting of patchwork eyelet or the deconstructed top that was half white tank, half seafoam green ruffled taffeta. The final look was reminiscent of ’80s prom dresses, also in that light shade of blue-green, with an asymmetrical shoulder detail, layered over a black printed tank top. Lest anyone think Liang is getting too prissy, most of the looks were paired with Salomon shoes. It’s a high-low juxtaposition familiar to anyone who knows how to get to Dimes Square.
12 September 2021
There are certain hallmarks you expect from a Sandy Liang collection: a school skirt, a fleece, and a billowing dress with an unexpected detail. Resort 2022 has all of those, building on the rebellious uniform aesthetic Liang has made a business out of reimagining. “I hate the pressure put on designers to reinvent the wheel every season,” she said. “When really, it’s growing from season to season. I’m going back to my uniform pieces. I’ll never get tired of a pleated skirt or an apron situation or the one pretty princess dress.”This season, the schoolgirl is dressing up for parties—perfect timing—in looks inspired by the clothes that Devon Aoki, Sofia Coppola, Ashley Olsen, and Gwyneth Paltrow as Margot Tenenbaum were wearing two decades ago. Each of the 23 looks is accessorized with chunky loafers and Target ankle socks, grounding the fanciful dresses and playing up the collegiate vibe of the pleated skirts. The uniform staples are a mid-thigh pleated skirt and a gray sweater vest dress, which is a nice iteration of a big trend. The latter is effortless when paired with a leather blazer cut to the same length. It’s one of the most classic outfits in the look book; the rest showcase Liang’s spunk better. For instance, the same dress is styled with a blue button-up and a fleece-and-couch-print vest. Liang describes it as an accidental finance bro, but I see it more asGossip Girl2.0.As for pretty princess dresses, there are plenty. The first look is a sleeveless pink and white number spliced just so, making the white section look like a petticoat, almost as if you’ve caught Cinderella halfway through “Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo.” Liang continued experimenting with some of the other dresses. One is half shirtdress, half tulle, with the latter wrapped around like a ruffled toga. Another is an Empire waist dress with a red fleece bodice and a black, tea-length skirt. Some of the most convincing looks are the miniskirts paired with jackets: a red fleece with a pink padded skirt, as well as a faux-fur cropped jacket with a black mini. She’s going somewhere, and you’re probably not on the list.
16 June 2021
When it comes to designing during a pandemic, there are two schools of thought: either design with practicality in mind or use fashion as an escape and an excuse to dream of occasions where a tulle dress would be appropriate. For her collection, which does in fact include such a garment, Sandy Liang chose the latter. “That’s the fundamental thing they teach you in design school: You have to be aspirational, you have to design for your dream woman. And I always kind of scoffed at that,” she says. “I think that was the right thing to do when I was younger, but now it’s really important to be optimistic and to design things that don’t make sense for right now.”That’s not to say the collection is impractical. There are plenty of classics Liang’s fans will instantly recognize: gorpcore fleeces, pleated skirts, and sweet, frilly dresses in gingham and floral. “One of my forever inspirations is after-school vibes,” Liang notes, which is evident in the sheer knee-high socks and cardigans as well. The unexpected, whimsical pieces, like a brown faux-fur tube top, make the collection come to life. “Why not?” Liang says. “I would wear that, even though it’s not the most practical thing.” The label’s first shoe, a mary jane with a pointe-shoe toe, also makes an impact, especially when styled in typical Sandy Liang fashion: that is, a melange of formality and texture that would feel just as appropriate at a bodega as at a crowded cocktail bar.
16 February 2021
Sandy Liang was getting used to showing her collections on a runway. After seasons of putting on small presentations and events, this would have marked her third fashion show. But shortly after the pandemic hit New York City, she left Manhattan and moved back in with her parents in Queens. It felt like a world away as she began to sketch, cut, and sew from inside of her childhood bedroom. Her brand DNA is rooted in nostalgia; she likes to reference bits and pieces of her youth, but this season was a pure view into Liang’s singular world.She says that she didn’t miss doing a show, because she felt that through her process she was able to distill what she really cares about. Her clothes for spring have a greatest hits vibe: easy tanks and dresses with cut-outs, pleated miniskirts, and her signature fleece jacket embroidered with Limited Too–era flowers. She and an artist friend created a “little crazy girl” print that Liang says is a mix of Ponyo (a Japanese cartoon character) and Margot Tenenbaum. Liang is always looking back, but it was nice to see her look inward this season too.
17 September 2020
Everything Sandy Liang does is personal. She creates from the heart and designs clothes based on what she knows, how she grew up, and the things she’s always liked to wear. In the past, this approach has led her down a path of cutesiness and naivety—last season, for example, she adorned some of her signature baby doll silhouettes with a new line of jewelry inspired by Polly Pocket. In that same collection, she showed a T-shirt printed with SpongeBob SquarePants. This season, however, Liang graduated from the fun kid’s stuff. In fact, she staged her fall 2020 show inside the entry hallway of New York City’s number-one-rated public high school, Stuyvesant, where Liang herself matriculated. The whole thing felt like a graduation too, albeit one set up with a runway to walk down instead of a stage to walk across. A string quartet played classical music at the base of the steps, and it reminded of that time just before going off to college when things were exciting and a little scary, but you couldn’t wait to go out into the world all on your own.Liang provided a wardrobe for postadolescent life this time around. Models wore modest midi skirts and easy, sophisticated long day dresses instead of tutus and tulle. Sharp coats in faux fur and shearling were hung over the shoulders, as a top CEO or editor might wear them. The tops and blouses made a strong impact too, especially one in white with an exaggerated Peter Pan collar. Liang still mixed in her ultrapopular fleeces, but they didn’t appear overly sporty or colorful. Instead, they looked like practical winter layering pieces one could wear to and from the office with a dress and just as easily with sweats to a yoga class. Liang didn’t fully depart from her playful whimsy when it came to the anime eyeball print that decorated a minidress, puffer coat, and leggings. Her tiny and very adorable puppy also made an appearance on the runway. But mostly, this was a dissertation of sorts for Liang, one that emphasized her growth trajectory as a designer over the past several years. As she nears age 30, she crafted a truly grown-up collection, one for which it is worth throwing a graduation cap into the air.
9 February 2020
Yesterday, Sandy Liang executed her very first runway show. She dabbled in this format last season, presenting her namesake label with models walking in and out of a gallery space, but this time around it was the real deal. “I can’t believe I never did a show,” a cool, calm, and collected Liang said once it was all over. It’s true that the designer’s wares have long deserved their own runway because, ultimately, Liang’s is a label all about swagger. Aside from the high-quality factor, much of the appeal of her clothes comes from imagining a painfully cool artist, chef, or musician strolling around downtown New York in one of her sheer baby doll dresses or color-blocked neon fleeces. And plenty of them do, especially Liang’s muses, who hang out with her and pose for her lookbooks, which are usually shot in and around Chinatown and the Lower East Side, where she lives and works.That crowd not only came to sit front row at Liang’s first show, some modeled on the runway too. Mission Chinese’s chef and cofounder wore the opening look well: a cropped bomber jacket left unzipped to reveal his chest tattoos and black jeans with a train of black tulle fabric hanging from the back. Other Liang-ites on the catwalk were decked out in a cropped gingham peasant top, a tiered-ruffle flamenco skirt, and a Peter Pan–collar dress with ruching at the bodice. The garter-belt tops and dresses gave a sexier vibe to the lineup, and so did the baby tee–inspired shirtdress that clung to the body. There was a lot more monochrome white than Liang usually shows, but these pieces sat nicely with the nostalgic, childlike aesthetic that she is always trying to capture. So too did her debut jewelry collection, which she said was inspired by the little heart cases that her Polly Pockets came in when she was a kid.Liang will always be looking backward in an effort to move her brand forward, and there’s nothing wrong with a designer holding tight to notions of days gone by. But she’s definitely growing up and evolving, so much so that she mentioned the Spring 2020 offering was tinged with “a little sadness” for her. She was missing her carefree childhood, the days when she didn’t have to think about seasonal deliveries and market appointments. But she was thrilled to have finally shown her work on a runway. In that regard, she was happy to embrace being a bit older and a bit wiser.
10 September 2019
What do Polly Pocket,The Virgin Suicides, and stick-on earrings have in common? According to designer Sandy Liang, a lot. To her, they each represent various moments of her upbringing: the precious, girly toys she played with, the fake jewelry she experimented with, and the Chinatown grannies she bonded with, most of whom dressed in floral-wallpaper-print dresses similar to those worn by the girls in Sofia Coppola’s 1999 film depicting gorgeous, depressed teens trapped in suburbia. After reminiscing fondly about this time in her life, Liang decided to pay homage to all the bits and pieces that made her early youth so sweet. She channeled it all into her Resort 2020 collection, which is one of her strongest to date. Liang shot the clothes on her childhood block in Bayside, Queens, a strip of concrete and lawn that she calls her “happy place.”The clothes she presented today felt childlike but not twee, and because Liang knows how to be playful with her designs without falling into the trap of kitsch, she succeeded in making the familiar look desirable again. Take, for example, a baby doll dress in a metallic silver foil fabric, or a pair of early 2000s-style capri jeans with crystal studs linking the pockets. Liang said with a wide smile that these reminded her of the ultra short, tightly fitting denim she used to scoop up at Old Navy as a kid. The baby tee dress in bubblegum pink, embroidered with heart, moon, and star motifs shaped like her favorite plastic stick-on earrings, was also a sly blast from the past. Liang’s use of balloon sleeves and mini hemlines befit a Millennial-aged Polly Pocket 2.0, as did the fuzzy faux-fur-trimmed cropped jacket and trench.With no detail spared this season, the designer also incorporated a soft floral print that she spotted in a film still fromThe Virgin Suicides. It was the wallpaper in the girls’ bedroom, and she blew it up and incorporated it into those reinvigorated Chinatown granny frocks. Liang’s clothes tend to have a personal bend to them, whether it’s channeled through one or more of her friends-slash-muses, or through her heritage. But Resort 2020 was all her, and it paid off.
5 June 2019
Last season, Sandy Liang was thinking about what her clothes might look like on a runway. She’s always shown her collections with intimate presentations in restaurants (her father’s eatery Congee Village for Spring 2019; her close friend Danny Bowien’s establishment Mission Chinese for Fall 2018), and Liang was beginning to feel like it was time to shake things up. Today, she took a baby step toward a new format with a gathering for Fall 2019 at a small gallery space on Canal Street. Models walked out and through the crowd before taking their places stationed around the room. It wasn’t a full runway by any means, but it was a pivot for Liang, and one that she was very excited about. She was also excited about the fact that this outing included her very first unisex capsule collection of outerwear designed with her signature leopard- and camouflage-print fleece and neon trim. After many of her guy friends, and a lot of other stylish men, started buying and wearing her women’s fleeces, Liang wanted to strip away the gender lines and make them available to everyone.In addition to the tightly edited capsule of jackets and coats, Liang also aimed for a fuller ready-to-wear collection that married feminine silhouettes and detailing with sportier vibes. She accomplished this with adorable tulle-trimmed puffers and black gingham prairie dresses made with anorak fabric. Liang’s crystal-bedecked skinny jeans and her scribble-flower-sketch embroidery were also nice this season, even as she described the latter motif as “not messy enough.” That’s the thing about Liang: She’s constantly perfecting and tweaking her brand, even if it means making something look a little more undone or wild. She’s a shrewd businesswoman, too, not only because she listens to what her fans want, but also because she understands that sometimes in fashion, slow and steady baby steps often win the race.
10 February 2019
Sandy Liang has a new piece of furniture in her studio. It’s an L-shaped couch covered in cowhide, which has been placed on top of a matching cowhide rug. The couch once belonged to her dad, and he kept it in the family’s Chinese restaurant in Queens, New York. She wasn’t sure if she was into it at first, but after living with it for a while, she decided it was definitely her vibe—so much so, she applied that vibe to her first-ever Pre-Fall collection, which she sums up as clothes fit for a “galactic cowboy or cowgirl.”Her creative, sartorially experimental downtown crew will undoubtedly flock to the crushed velvet bike shorts and the metallic and denim skirt, the top half of which was brilliantly fashioned from an old pair of jorts. And they’re likely to scoop up the playful butterfly prints and new iterations of her neon-detailed fleeces, too.Elsewhere, she introduced pouf-sleeved minidresses which will have strong mass appeal, ditto her T-shirts and a new printed puffer jacket. Liang is clearly getting more strategic and thinking about her brand’s long-term potential, but she isn’t losing her magic touch along the way. She knows what makes a piece of clothing desirable to a Gen Z or millennial customer these days; it’s about clothing that conjures a feeling more than anything else, whether that feeling is nostalgia or a desire to be cool.
5 December 2018
It took a lot of convincing for Sandy Liang’s dad to allow her to put on a fashion presentation inside his place of work. Her father has owned and operated the restaurant Congee Village, a Lower East Side institution, since the early ’90s, but it wasn’t until recently that he agreed to his daughter’s request. Her tightly edited Spring 2019 collection was shown on models who stood on the chairs and banquets of the large dining area, while the staff served Chinese beer and rose-flavored lemonade. The tables were set with fried rice and tea, as well as candy-colored floral arrangements. Liang even handed out “take out menus” printed with the lookbook images instead of food. She loves to create communal and whimsy-filled atmospheres like this, which allow people to interact with her designs. But while in recent seasons her clothes have stuck to a single, downtown-kid vibe, she really broadened her offering this season.For Spring Liang focused on a sophisticated design sensibility rather than streetwear, which was still very present but not spotlighted as the singular idea. It was a mash-up of her past and present and perhaps her future—seemingly a good one at that. Liang dressed up track shorts with white lace at the hem, and reworked athletic pants and a bucket hat using pale pink fabric whose surface mimicked shiny wood. The leopard slip dress had a serious cool factor, as did the baby blue minidress with a drawstring on the skirt. Liang showed her signature outerwear too, this time a chunky button-down fleece and a black puffer lined with baby blue shearling. The most alluring piece was the black taffeta cocktail dress, which had volume and draping in the silhouette; it was lovely to see Liang show off her talents this way. The look wasBreakfast at Tiffany’s, had the film been shot inside a dependable neighborhood Chinese joint instead of a diamond-filled store far uptown.Liang proved today that she is evolving her techniques and her aesthetic. She would be smart to expand her lineup next season, if only to showcase more of her abilities in cutting and tailoring. She also mentioned that she might like to do a runway show next season, which would be her first. Her dad might not be keen on bringing the fashion crowds into his universe again, but no doubt he’ll be watching and cheering from the front row, and if this latest collection is any indication, so will the rest of us.
9 September 2018
Back in February, Sandy Liang showed her collection inside Mission Chinese, with music blaring and her crew of close-knit cool-kid friends swarming around her. The setting was undeniably fun, yet it felt slightly difficult to get acquainted with the designer behind one of downtown New York’s most popular brands. At her Rivington Street studio today things were different. Her small team waved and smiled. Her beloved mini Australian shepherd, Tim, bounced around the room with a tennis ball. Drake played softly in the background. Liang was understandably more laid-back on her home turf and without the chaos of a staged showing.Liang is the kind of designer you want one-on-one time with, especially since every garment she makes seems to have a deeply personal touch. This doesn’t always translate to a complex reference or a specific muse (though she is often inspired by her grandmother and her Chinese heritage). Liang tends to look inward for what’s missing in her own wardrobe. She was tired of lace, so that was nixed. Instead, she opted for silver sequins on an asymmetrical dress; slightly baggy ’90s-inspired jeans named “Mariah” for their butterfly print and the pop icon who loves that particular insect; and new touches of leopard and neon on her signature pullover fleeces. This latest offering felt lighter than last season’s, but the essence remains. Liang’s clothes are instinctual, a bit crafty, and sometimes slightly off-kilter in terms of fit. They are totally and unabashedly her.
7 June 2018
Sandy Liang chose a neighborhood joint for her Fall 2018 presentation. Mission Chinese Food may not qualify as a “joint” for most people, but for Liang, it’s a hangout and a respite in the middle of the Lower East Side neighborhood where she has lived and worked for years. Liang’s world is all about this scene. She designs clothes for her friends, some of whom were modeling the collection this afternoon (that included the restaurant’s chef and founder, Danny Bowien, in a maroon suede shearling moto jacket). There is a youthful, grab-it-out-of-the-dress-up-box spirit about Liang’s ready-to-wear, as well as her colorful signature coats and jackets. She even described a pastel pink and black lace dress as “the kind you’d find at Party City in a plastic bag labeled ‘Princess Costume.’ ” A cute sailor-collar, floral-print frock was akin to something one of her other friends—maybe Kate Foley, who styled the presentation—might pick from a vintage rack inside the Hester Street Fair. The plaid green pleated schoolgirl skirt was fun, too, as was an intarsia knit pullover featuring Liang’s Australian Shepherd, Tim Tam.Funandcuteare actually just the right descriptors for this designer’s ready-to-wear. Everything is nicely constructed, but still, Liang’s strength as a designer comes through most noticeably in her cool, fur-trimmed outerwear. Those pieces are the steadfast anchors of her brand, and while it’s admirable that she is expanding her creative palette with new designs, she might try a different focus. There’s tons of competition these days in terms of New York–based labels making clothes for the downtown crews of misfits, raver rats, and Mission Chinese regulars. Liang has a vision and it’s not a bad one, but it would be great to see her venture out of the LES and show that she’s capable of making clothes for men and women who live somewhere else.
8 February 2018
Sandy Liangdescribes her style as more tomboy than girly-girl, and you can see it in her collections. They’re sweet, but with a bite. Since launching her label in 2014, she’s mainly been known for her bold, going-for-it outerwear: pastel furs, glossy leather bombers, shearling-lined jean jackets. They look particularly good on her longtime fan Caroline Brasch Nielsen. But while a major coat can make the outfit, Liang has been working on the clothes to wear underneath, too.Her Spring ’18 lineup was an evolution of the unfussy dresses, faded jeans, and knits she’s done in the past, to the point where you felt like you’d seen a few of them before. The shimmering brocade party looks felt riskier, though, and there were a few mint green dresses in a material that looked like lace, but had a filmy lightness. Other dresses had Liang’s signature peekaboo cut-outs or jelly-flower appliqués, a carryover from Resort. If it was surprising at first to see cozy fleeces and fur-trimmed motorcycle jackets in a Spring collection, most of these pieces will ship when there’s still snow on the ground.Liang often hesitates to weave a deeper meaning into her collections or cite references beyond her Lower East Side neighborhood, but that hasn’t stopped girls from saving their pennies to buy a piece of her world. It doesn’t quite feel like a complete wardrobe yet, but Liang is in expansion mode.
11 September 2017