Fashioning Nostalgia and Heritage: The Philosophy Behind Sandy Liang
Written by Helen Song
Sandy Liang, a name that has surged in prominence in the past year, is perhaps best recognized for her hyperfeminine pieces, often adorned with flowers, ribbons, frills, and the brand’s signature motif: bows. However, her looks are versatile, with designs ranging from floofy, pastel babydoll dresses to preppier suiting fabric pieces in grayscale palettes.
Liang’s work can be interpreted through paradoxes: Young New York City downtown girl meets Chinatown grandma, schoolgirl in a grown-up way, softly and pragmatically flamboyant, dainty yet grungy. But rather than merely coexisting in disjunction, these contradictions coalesce into a new genre that is uniquely Sandy Liang. Liang likes to complement more delicate components with edgier details. For example, pairing a ruffled white floral dress with black ribbon statements and dark smudgy eye makeup. Perhaps one of these most masterfully explored juxtapositions is her ability to mesh feminine and masculine elements cohesively. Her runway looks consist of ballet flats and skirts with boxy blazers, lace dresses with hiking shoes, and oversized black puffers plastered with cartoonish wing prints and polka dots. Sported by Bella Hadid, another distinctive Sandy Liang look is her monochromatic outfits which showcase an “edgy elegance.” Liang incorporates clothing items that could be worn separately in the corporate world, such as blazers, slacks, and pleated skirts, but subverts these elements by pairing them with bras and cut-out tops, miniskirts, and asymmetrical hems.
Liang’s work often alludes to her Chinese heritage and upbringing in Chinatown. Her recent collaboration with Baggu showcases a red and blue floral plaid tote, a pattern originally rooted in Hong Kong as material used for luggage by migrant workers. These woven polyethylene fabric sheets, called “Red-white-blue,” are a symbol of “fortitude, adaptability, and industriousness” for the Hong Kong working class (Ling 2018). In addition to cultural significance, Liang infuses personal connections into pieces like her gingham apron dresses, which serve as a testament to her childhood memories at her father’s restaurant.
Liang also draws inspiration from her former self. Between runway shots and outfit closeups on Liang’s Instagram are pictures of childhood memorabilia and scenes from heroine lead animes such as Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away and Sailor Moon. This sense of childlike wonder permeates and shapes Liang’s creations. Her work evokes a feeling of comfort, offering an unconditional affirmation of self expression for the wearer. Liang’s pieces are about embracing vulnerability and regressing back to whatever unfettered spirit your childhood self possessed so instinctively. Connected to this philosophy is the integration of her own Chinese background and familial figures.
Though she cites some concrete, aesthetic forms of inspiration, Liang focuses more on the ethos of these sources. She describes what initially influenced her work in an interview with The Science Survey: “I was drawn to my grandmother’s clothes because of the fun prints, and the specific shape of pants that her and all these other Chinatown grandmas wear… there are always clashing prints, but it never actually clashes—it just works. It’s their attitude: ‘I don’t even know what I’m wearing. I don’t even care’.”
In this way, Chinatown grandmothers embody the true essence of the elusive “cool girl.” Rather than trying to be, they simply are. Due to the rise of social media, much of today’s rapidly cycling fashion space is plagued by a penchant for adopting curated aesthetics and mimicking exact pieces seen on influencers or models. And despite the coveted ideal of exuding “coolness,” this tendency ironically undermines what “coolness” actually is—not an aesthetic, but rather an aura.
Indifferent to concepts of “trendiness” and aesthetic subcultures, the Chinatown grandmother gets dressed in a way that is unapologetically candid and uncaring, providing the philosophical blueprint for Liang’s creations. Instead of encouraging us to be a version of ourselves through aspirational pursuits, Liang’s pieces are about finding ourselves through what we already have: who we were before we had to meet the demands of our social environments. For Liang, the epitome of this concept is best captured by girlhood.
Liang pays a bittersweet homage to the nostalgia reminiscent of girlhood: an amalgam of blissful ignorance, carefree authenticity, and imagination confined only by fantasy. In her Resort 24 collection, Liang features an outfit with a long red bow and navy sleeved dress, a reference to the iconic look of protagonist Kiki in Miyazaki’s Kiki’s Delivery Service. The film is a whimsical portrayal of a young girl learning to navigate independence, develop self-belief, and explore how vulnerability can be an asset rather than a weakness. During an interview with The New York Times, Liang also recounts her conflicting relationship with nostalgia: “I’ll have a memory of the way my best friend’s house smelled growing up, or the shampoo that we used during a sleepover. . . I’ll smell it in my head, and then I’ll get really sad and yearn for it.” In a sense, fashion is a medium through which Liang is able to immortalize these experiences.
In an interview with Fashionista, Liang stated that she makes clothes for “the girl who is who she is and rides the subway to work”. Devoid of the pretentiousness or exclusivity many other high fashion brands possess, Sandy Liang welcomes anyone who resonates with her work, designing clothes aimed to be worn for daily life, for whatever occasion. Beyond just garments, Liang’s work represents nostalgia and humble authenticity, giving voice to the unbridled inner child within each of us.
References:
Chiao, Katelyn. “Fashion Designer Sandy Liang’s Nostalgic Reflections on New York.” The Science Survey, 20 July 2023, thesciencesurvey.com/spotlight/2023/07/20/fashion-designer-sandy-liangs-nostalgic-reflections-on-new-york/.
Fernandez, Chantal. “Sandy Liang Is a Label to Watch - Fashionista.” Fashionista, fashionista.com/2015/03/sandy-liang. Accessed 13 Nov. 2023.
Ling, Wessie. “Bag of remembrance: a cultural biography of red-white-blue, from Hong Kong to Louis Vuitton.” European Fashion, 2018.
Testa, Jessica. “The Big Business of Dressing like a Little Girl.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 9 Aug. 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/08/09/style/sandy-liang-baggu.html.
“Sandy Liang Collections.” SANDY LIANG, www.sandyliang.info/pages/ss-24. Accessed 12 Nov. 2023.
Liang, Sandy [@sandyliang]. Instagram, www.instagram.com/sandyliang/.
Edited by: Lauren Veum, Sam Teisch, and Hana Razvi
DEI Revised by: Katherine Rubinstein
