Sandy Liang Makes Her Inner Child's Idea of Grown-Up Clothes for Fall 2025

By The Citizen on February 10, 2025

When Sandy Liang presented her Spring 2025 collection last September, it was her first since the birth of her daughter — a momentous occasion for anyone, but especially for Liang, who has established herself as a sort of girlhood whisperer of the fashion industry.

At the time, however, Liang told Fashionista that her path to parenthood hadn’t impacted her design process very much, saying, “I had to design the collection so early because my team had to plan for my pregnancy and me being sort of away for a little while.”

Fast-forward to Liang’s Fall 2025 collection (which she presented on Sunday), it’s clear that her experience as a first-time mom impacted her vision for the new season, for which she melded her perspective of youth through a child’s eyes with reminiscences of her own.

In the show notes, Liang specifically stated that Fall 2025 is “a still life of growing up” and “a childhood fantasy realized.” As the first model appeared, it felt as though Liang was playing an innocent game of dress-up rather than catering to an audience of critics and influencers. Instead, Liang crafted a little girl’s idea of a fashionable, working adult wardrobe.

To the music of Chinese singer Faye Wong and set on a fake snow-covered catwalk, the show opened with a look featuring a pink satin mini dress with a yellow star at the center, featuring doll-sized, branded clothing pinned on top. Underneath, a pointelle long sleeve and leggings made for a very early 2000s kid-like ensemble. Even the choice of shoe — an open-toed black sandal — felt exactly like the mismatched and misguided styling decision of a girl rummaging through her mom’s closet for something to run around the house in.

Much of the collection seems to embody what being a “grown-up” may look like to a child: modest pencil skirts, crossbody bags, pearl necklaces, quarter-sleeve cardigans and dress shirts layered under tailored sweaters. But these elements aren’t as drab as they sound; Liang rendered them fancifully, bringing a childlike sense of wonder through details. Her modest, office-ready casual skirts are done in a turquoise blue reflective satin, purses pop in highlighter yellow and rows of pearls are interrupted by a singular candy-like star charm.

Liang turned to other nostalgic items as sources of inspiration, per the show notes: “There is the excitement of having a beautiful pink planner with a lock on it when there is nothing to plan […] Memories of visiting Toys ‘R’ Us in the ’90s or moments from favorite films like ‘The Snowman’ and ‘The Parent Trap’ are imbued within the collection.”

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The ’90s are especially prevalent throughout Fall 2025 — models wore their hair pulled back messily in unembellished claw clips, rather than Liang’s usual rosette hairbands and bows. Midi skirts feature printed images of a 1999 calendar, a Sidekick-esque cellphone, plastic charm necklaces and more. One T-shirt is emblazoned with “Sandy Liang,” written in the style of the Toys ‘R’ Us logo.

“Precious objects abound but their value is only personal […] accompanying the seriousness of self-actualization is a playful abandon – her closet is filled with beautiful and unlikely things all layered on top of each other,” Liang says in her show notes. “She knows that trying on a little bit of everything is when you get something delicious.”

That “little bit of everything” comes through multi-color striped sweaters with a smaller doll-sized version sewn onto its waist (a possible homage to one’s “inner child”) paired with fuzzy green mini skirts, clusters of award ribbons pinned onto tank tops, knee-length finance bro-approved fleece sweaters, button-up prairie dresses and more.

Though Liang has established a clear theme and ethos for her 11-year-old brand, she continues to find new ways to communicate the sartorial desires of her younger self, without becoming unserious or sacrificing the sophistication of her present-day style.

Perhaps as a subconscious result of her recent parenthood path, Liang ultimately showed a more mature version of her typically young customer for Fall 2025. Now, the same people who found comfort in Liang’s signature bows and frilly details can evolve alongside the designer, transitioning to a closet of more refined wardrobe staples that still carry a powerful essence of nostalgic femininity.

See the Sandy Liang Fall 2025 collection below.