Sandy Liang's Book Feels Like Everyone's First Fashion Memory

The downtown designer chronicles her brand's evolution from 2014 to now.

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Sandy Liang wearing a floral-print dress.
(Image credit: Courtesy of Sandy Liang)
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There's no place more special than the sidewalk outside of a Sandy Liang show. Not for the pleated skirts, the hair bows, or the cotton candy–pink fur coats, but instead for the whispers from everyone in attendance about how much the show reminded them of a memory.

Liang has somehow managed to tap into the collective nostalgia of tens of thousands of fashion fans—those at her shows and those who admire her collections from afar—despite her singular experience of growing up in New York City. Her childhood might not be something everyone can relate to, yet Liang still has a special way of making every piece somehow feel as though it was always meant to be yours. It's like it was tucked away in the back of your brain, unable to materialize until she designed it into reality.

The designer's archive has been a bit fuzzy too, in the sense that there has never been one until now. Her latest project with Rizzoli, Dressing Up: Sandy Liang, is the downtown designer's first book, which chronicles her brand from its inception in 2014 until now.

Sandy Liang sitting in front of a wall where the headshots of models are hanging.

(Image credit: Courtesy of Sandy Liang)

Sandy Liang posing next to a Miffy bust made of flowers.

(Image credit: Courtesy of Sandy Liang)

Model wearing a Sandy Liang design.

(Image credit: Courtesy of Sandy Liang)

Flipping through the book feels like the nostalgia Liang effortlessly taps into season after season. There are photographs of models standing in front of her childhood neighbor's home in Bayside, Queens, and eating at Congee Village in the Lower East Side. There are street style shots of all the Chinatown grandmas who she cites as her forever inspiration. There's even a photo of her mini Australian Shepherd Tim Tam sprawled on the floor of her studio in one of her leopard-print fleeces for dogs.

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The book is a shinier iteration of her Instagram feed, which is just as adored for being equal parts aspirational and personal. Dressing Up: Sandy Liang is an extension of that balance, something that gives insight into her design vision and how she sees the world around her.

Model wearing Sandy Liang jewelry.

(Image credit: Courtesy of Sandy Liang)

Some fashion books are bogged down by long, verbose essays or extended descriptions of technical details. They can feel alienating and stuffy. Liang's, of course, does not.

Instead, there are short, quippy notes accompanying the photos from the designer herself, discussing how she was feeling at the time backstage or what movie she was watching when she put together a mood board. It's as inviting as anything she's ever worked on. It feels so similar to flipping through a photo album; you might find yourself surprised to see you aren't in any of the photos. But that's the Liang touch. She's constantly finding a way to pull you in, creating nostalgia for an outfit you've never even worn but always dreamed of.

Shop the book below.

Tara Gonzalez
Tara Gonzalez
Senior Fashion & Social Editor

Tara Gonzalez is a senior fashion and social editor at WhoWhatWear. where she is interested in exploring the intersection of fashion and culture and why we are drawn to wearing the things we wear and what that says about the world we live in. Previously she worked as a senior fashion editor at Harper's Bazaar. When she isn't writing trend deep dives for WWW, she's working on her newsletter on Substack, Cult Classic, which explores the very best fashion in film and television. She has a degree in creative writing from The University of Pennsylvania. She lives in Brooklyn with her boyfriend and pug Bjork, the later of which has a very extensive collection of dog-sized Sandy Liang sweaters.