September 15, 2025 |
The designer looked to childhood charms and symbols to construct a new look. For spring 2026, Sandy Liang continues mining an idealised childhood to consider how personhood comes from our relationships to objects and the memories we’ve made alongside them. Over Hilary Duff’s What Dreams Are Made Of from The Lizzie McGuire Movie, models wore princess dresses, church-ready satin a-line skirts, flowery pajama print capris overlaid with skirts and a fluorescent Ozian blue gingham like Dorothy goes to Bedford Avenue. There was a flurry of charming accessories like oversized buttons on sandals, USB earrings and purses shaped like ballet flats that took the brand to new levels of the uncanny.
Liang says the collection is meant for the “next generation of Chinatown grandma’s – animated by the idea that it’s less about what you wear and more about how you put yourself together.” In the spirit of mixing references to create an identity, she pulls well loved things of the zeitgeist like Margiela’s tabi flats (ubiquitous throughout lower Manhattan) or the devilishly cute charms hanging off bags, then combines them with modest wares cut from fabrics resembling grandma’s curtains and tablecloths. She offers bright skirts with PVC pockets to mix and match your favorite charms and protect them from open-air danger. These looks make a commercial argument for purchasing more charms as comfort symbols. The styling also layered baby blanket patterned jumpsuits under bra tops and chic lace capris and tops under dresses like children’s thermals. There is a nostalgia for a childhood that has passed.
However, this collection may hint that this reverence to the past is not entirely idyllic. The blanket-like prints found throughout included notes apologizing to first kisses. There were also visible care tags blown up to phone-sized proportions that asked the wearer to be present and kind to themselves. This is an acknowledgement that it is hard to be totally carefree when your heart is on your sleeve. On the streets, Sandy Liang looks chic when cut by accessories and fabrics that hint at a harder edge and a more complex life. As the years encompassing childhood fly by, it will be interesting to see which of these items make a mark on the soul and stick. Liang’s collection has given the tools but can only imagine who you will become and what life you’ll lead in these looks and amongst these charms.
Photography courtesy of Sandy Liang.
