Ruffles. Bows. Small porcelain faces with blushing cheeks. Neatly aligned locks. Aprons. Surrounded by toilets and plastic chairs just as big as the tip of your thumb. Tiny versions of castles. Towers. Japanese temples. A Belle Époque city mansion with crème-coloured curtains and a grandfather clock. In the corner, a wooden tree house. Now picture all that stacked on top of each other, a bit dusty, creating a surreal village fallen out of age and logic. That’s probably how you could imagine the dollhouse collection of 5th Avenue heiress Huguette Clark, the inspiration behind Sandy Liang’s Spring/Summer 2026 show, which was just presented at New York Fashion Week.
So, what the designer basically did with this collection is this: She took Clark’s dolls, picked them out of their antique living rooms, from the dead streets of the surreal village, and gave them a makeover. She took the lace that had turned yellow over time and tailored it into capri leggings, took the curtains and made them into a skirt. She combined early 20th-century ruffles with stickers, bunnies and asymmetrical bikini tops. And she took the traditional Japanese tabis, turning them into trendy ballet flats. Because just like Huguette Clark, Liang’s work is all about nostalgia and childlike wonder, about the blurring line between reality and fantasy, and about fashion that is not based on what you wear, but on who you are.
Therefore, the S/S 2026 collection takes even the smallest, seemingly most meaningless everyday objects and turns them into testaments of a childhood that has shaped us: If you look closely, you can see buttons everywhere, for example. On the heads of the models. On their shoulders. On their feet. As if they just fell out of a small tin box that usually stores needles, thread, and a random assortment of spare buttons — the kind every household seems to have.
You can see a huge spring onion printed on a simple A-line dress, an homage to “Chinatown grandmas” and the family restaurant Liang spent time at after school. You can see old panties sewn onto the fabric as if they had stuck to it after you carelessly threw everything into one washing machine. And if you really, really look closely, you can even find a heart necklace that looks like the tacky plastic jewellery that came bundled with those horse or H2O: Just Add Water magazines you used to buy as a kid.
But that’s not all. For the perfect amount of surrealism and crazy, the New York-based designer added huge bows, as you can see on the back of a nostalgic bridal dress with a small shooting star on the chest. There are super random pieces of fabric dangling from the side like a preloved baby blanket. And of course, there’s a reimagined version of Liang’s signature ballet shoes, now as a pink or black purse. For anyone who doesn’t know: These combine a classic Mary Jane with pointe shoes and were released as part of Liang’s first footwear line in 2022, a huge success and one reason for the brand’s rising popularity.
To make it even more personal, you can find disproportionately big washing labels on which Liang printed seemingly handwritten notes like “Be present and remember, always speak to yourself kindly.” It’s an intimate reminder, a mantra that once again symbolises the gap between how the world sees you, how you assemble yourself, and who you truly are.
So, as you can see, what might at first glance look like a never-ending sea of out-of-date prints, shepherdess-like puff sleeves, and sailor collars is, in reality, a unique playground — one that invites you to explore, to dream, and maybe even to stop thinking about the problems you face as an adult. You know, taxes and rent and stuff like that. It’s a playground that takes us on a journey through time: from the cradle to the bold office looks of the ‘80s with their wide shoulders.
You could say we turned into children and grew up all over again with this collection, and were reminded that who we are, who we are becoming, depends on our experiences, our choices, our surroundings, and even the smallest details. In the end, Liang created a world of escapism, just like the doll’s house collection once was for Clark. And with that, the dusty village from the beginning suddenly comes back to life.
