Sandy Liang

Sandy Liang was born on June 4, 1991, in New York City and grew up in Flushing, Queens, with a brother and a pet Chihuahua.^[1][2] She briefly studied architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design before transferring to Parsons School of Design to study fashion design. Her father founded a restaurant in Manhattan Chinatown called Congee Village in 1996, when Liang was six. She frequently spent time at the restaurant after school.^[3][1] Her family restaurant and Chinatown in general serve as major design inspirations for her brand.^[1]

Liang met Dorian Booth, an architect, in 2016. They married in 2023.^[4]

Liang launched her fashion label, Sandy Liang, in 2014, after graduating from Parsons. She was inspired by the style of grandmothers in Chinatown,^[5][2] and engaged her grandmother to model a collection of oversized coats.^[6] The brand's first collection was released in fall/winter 2014.^[7] In spring/summer 2015, the brand held a runway show at Liang's family restaurant.^[1]

In 2018, Liang was featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 in the category of art and design.^[8] In 2019, the label released a line of leopard-print fleece jackets inspired by hand-me-downs of Liang's childhood.^[1] The New York Times described it as the "hottest jacket at New York Fashion Week".^[9] The success of the jacket led to the label's first fashion show in September 2019.^[5] In 2020, the brand opened a flagship retail store in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.^[10]

In 2022, Sandy Liang released its first footwear line, taking inspiration from the aesthetics of ballet to create a cross between a Mary Jane and a pointe shoe.^[11] The release was highly successful, even taking pre-orders for restocks.^[5] In spring 2023, the brand released a version of the shoe in mesh,^[12] and their first bridal collection in the same year.^[13]

Sandy Liang's style has been associated with 2020s design trends like gorpcore,^[3] balletcore, and coquette, and compared with designers such as Simone Rocha and Miu Miu; Harper's Bazaar compared the brand's cult following to that of the streetwear brand Supreme.^[14][5] Its collections often feature ribbon-bow motifs, which was noted as a trend in both fashion and interior design in the spring and summer of 2023.^[15][16] Several of the brand's collections are inspired by different elements of founder Liang's girlhood such as Hello Kitty and hand-me-down clothing.^[1] In an interview, Liang cited the film Marie Antoinette and the work of Sofia Coppola as a major influence.^[17]

Sandy Liang collaborated with Warby Parker in 2019,^[18] Away and Target in 2021,^[19][20] and Vans in 2020^[21] and 2022.^[22] In 2023, the brand collaborated with Salomon to create a line of sneakers.^[23][24] In 2023, Sandy Liang collaborated with the dog clothing brand Little Beast on a line of fleeces and knitted sweaters for dogs.^[25] The brand also created its first line of homeware that year, including a doormat and a carpet runner as well as a variety of underwear and loungewear.^[26]