Sandy Liang Introduces the Next Phase of the Slipper Shoe Trend—and It's a Sleepy Girl's Dream
Somehow, it's getting cozier for fall.
Editors are as fixated on their sleep schedules as their show schedules during New York Fashion Week. Days start early; nights go late; sprinting from event to event turns even the most comfortable flats and heels into blister factories.
By the time Sandy Liang was set to present her Fall 2026 fashion show in the New York Academy of Medicine's library on the Upper East Side, front-row under-eye circles and whispered pleas for a Lorelai Gilmore-style coffee IV were as common as neck ties and political pins. So, the designer provided guests a look that would wake them right up—or at least speak to the highest-ranking item on their wish lists: a slumber party remix of the slipper shoe trend.
In a bow-laden collection inspired by Marie Antoinette's Petit Trianon (her private chateau on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles), Liang punctuated a few bedrot-but-make-it-fashion sweatsuits with white, fuzzy bunny slippers with a two-ish inch heels.
Look 6 in Sandy Liang's Fall 2026 show kicked off an array of slipper shoes.
The first pairs resembled sleepover-approved bunny slippers—floppy ears and all.
This turns the page on the slipper shoe trend we saw emerge last fall, when brands like Calvin Klein and The Row presented slip-on mules that attempted to disguise "I hit snooze five times this morning" energy beneath rich, elegant satin and leather. Their takes were much more understated. Liang's approach is direct, giving tired girls permission to go out looking like they truly just woke up and not hiding where their inspiration came from.
Sandy Liang's twists on slipper shoes walking by my front row seat at the Fall 2026 fashion show.
Footwear wasn't the only place where Liang brought sleeping-in chic to the fore. Her collection notes' emphasis on "tactile metamorphosis" manifested as a floral bedspread reimagined as a quilted jacket, a two-piece pajama set cut from glossy pink satin, sleeping bag puffers, fur-trimmed coats, and jersey princess dresses.
Later in the show, models wore extra-fluffy heels set with contrasting bows...
...and going-out dresses came completed with fleece-lined opera heels.
Even the looks that weren't quite so suited for lounging on the couch—like a paillette-coated mini dress bisected by a semi-sheer stomach panel, or a knit cardigan with ribbons trailing behind like streamers—came accompanied by a third and final twist on slipper shoes: ladylike opera heels trimmed not by lace or satin, but Ugg-adjacent fleece. Liang knows not every setting will allow actual bunny slippers, but these capture the same comfy-cozy feeling in a slightly dressier form.
All in all, this Fall 2026 runway put a signature Sandy Liang bow on a philosophy fashion girls know well: The best part of going out is getting ready...or just staying in, wearing nothing but princess pajamas and a fluffy pair of slippers.
Sandy Liang Fall 2026
