For Spring 2026, the Sandy Liang Woman Goes Back to Her Childhood Wardrobe

On Sunday afternoon, Sandy Liang presented her Spring 2026 collection at Buddakan in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. In the moody lighting of the restaurant’s downstairs venue, Liang offered a contrastingly light, airy and youthful lineup of designs.

While referencing nostalgic sartorial elements of girlhood is nothing new for Liang, her past few seasons have reflected the wardrobe of a more minimalist, grown-up woman reminiscing on childhood, rather than actively indulging in childlike pieces. For her latest collection, the designer opted to instead embrace the latter idea and explore a kitschier version of her signature aesthetic.

Vintage-inspired silhouettes are made all the more playful by dollhouse accessories embroidered into the fabric. A lacy, bridal-esque mini dress with shoulder pads and ruffled pink window curtains plastered across the chest represents an older woman sticking to classic shapes while still yearning for a feeling of adolescence.

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“I feel like [girlish playfulness] is something you don’t grow out of. It’s just innate, and for me, I think back to those memories, and it’s an escape,” Liang told Fashionista backstage following the show. “So that’s what I’m always trying to bring to the collection of clothes, just joyfulness.”

That joy comes out in whimsical jersey dresses, skirts and tops covered in a repeat cartoon rabbit pattern, interwoven with stamps of the brand name. “The bunny is a little character that we’ve played with for a while, so this season we made it into a print, kind of like gift wrapping vibes,” explained Liang. When I asked her if she finds her customers interested in more branded, logo-centric products, she said, “I guess I don’t even really think about that, but it is just more fun. It feels natural to do that now.”

Another standout print from the collection is the heavily Oz-coded blue gingham, featured in a bra-and-maxi-skirt set, as a panel on a collared puff sleeve mini, a tote bag and a babydoll dress almost identical to Dorothy’s in “The Wizard of Oz” (perhaps there’s a “Wicked: For Good” press tour look for Ariana Grande or Cynthia Erivo in here?).

Despite the similarities, Liang said the classic film did not serve as inspiration: “I think maybe what translated to Dorothy was that we were thinking about playing with scale, like dollhouse proportion, so doll clothes, but then blown up to be adult size. Then have big things shrunk in size and vice versa.”

Other amusing pieces from the collection include a shift dress with various pairs of underwear stitched on, pencil skirts printed with selfies of Liang and her dog, a tube dress elongated by an image of scallions and a maxi dress covered in dozens of oversized bows, because, of course.

Keep scrolling to see every look from Sandy Liang Spring 2026.