The Sandy Liang Fall Winter 2024 collection follows a schoolgirl who grows up to be a princess. In the fall, she emerges from the ocean. She ties her hair, like you tie yours, in a ribbon of salt. She gathers things she can never live without, things she can’t even remember, in her little bag. Her bag is a silver falling star strapped on by satin. She gathers pictures on her phone. When she turns around, all the way down her back are tiny strands of braids, like bows. Illusions everywhere, on her wrist and on her collar, but she knows who she is. She is special. She is just one girl in a group of girls.
This season marks a decade of Sandy Liang. Each subsequent collection has built out the uniform for this new kind of princess. A closet is a treasure chest and each season it holds more pieces. Fall debuts Recital bags in shiny leather. A gray tracksuit has a rosette emerging from the shoulder. Red pants with an apron sweetly pleated over them. The palest pink dress, it holds its shape whether you wear it or not. Mary Janes in butter yellow. A loafer Spazzolato. A high ballerina boot with a bow on the toe. An office palette of grays and reds and soft corduroy, honeyed mohair, donegal tweed, fine stripes and satins.
New prints, like a constellation of pink stars on a jacket, are pulled from childhood planners. Inspiration comes from Sailor Moon and paparazzi photos and catalogs you’d get in the mail and page through so quickly you get a paper cut, excited to see what you might want – matching jackets with three different skirt lengths to pick. The collection is an ode to wearing your clothes, to growing up a little without sacrificing what you love. There’s something so beautiful when girls match each other. In a uniform, there is fantasy and in nostalgia, there is presence.
The Sandy Liang show took place at Studio 525 with music by Parker Radcliffe.
Images courtesy of Sandy Liang
