At Sandy Liang FW24, Miu Miu Meets Brandy Melville

On Sunday morning, hordes of girls adorned in bow hair clips, bow dresses, and bow skirts, carrying little bow bags, shimmied their way into a crowded gallery space in Chelsea for Sandy Liang FW24. The venue felt small for a brand that has received so much hype and controversy for their school girl-inspired looks, but after a decade in business, Liang doesn’t doesn’t appear to be interested in the type of fashion week ostentation that has caused so many young labels to crash and burn. Instead, the New York designer is honing in on the hype that has kept her label afloat, while responding to critics of her so-called “coquettish” take on womanhood in a delightfully cheeky way. 

This season, the show opened with a series of 3-D rose-adorned navy, gray, and cream zip-up hoodies paired with matching sweats and pleated skirts while Madonna’s “What It Feels Like for a Girl ” blasted on a loudspeaker. Those looks, along with neutral turtleneck sweaters and wide-leg trousers, offered a rebuttal to critics of the girly TikTok trend by providing an alternative to overtly feminine fashion while still catering to a youthful audience. Later on, a series of furry skirts and polo shirts stood out next to backless wool sheath dresses and bow-adorned suits to create an aesthetic that perfectly panders to Gen-Z consumers obsessed with both Miu Miu and Brandy Melville, as well as women in their 30s who aren’t concerned with tired ideas about age-appropriate dressing.

In fact, that’s precisely what this collection was about: growing up but not giving up on the fashion fantasy that we dreamt of as teens. Instead of adopting conservatism, Sandy Liang wants her schoolgirls to become princesses, the type who might wear their cropped navy jackets paired with tiny white purses held in front of the body with glove-adorned hands, or rock Jackie Kennedy-inspired dresses paired with silver star clutches that remind us of the tiny pleasures that made us love with fashion in the first place.