Sandy Liang x Vans Old Skool 'Delancey'
Colorway: Delancey/True White · Style code: VN0A4U3BXF5 · Release date: February 21, 2020 · Price: $273 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: J.Crew x Vans Old Skool 'Black Floral' (VN0A4U3B08H) · Vans Old Skool 'Rainbow' (VN0A4U3B0AN) · Vans Old Skool 'Pig Suede - Black' (VN0A4U3B18L) · Vans Old Skool 'Pig Suede - Chili Pepper' (VN0A4U3B18N) · Vans Old Skool 'Pig Suede - Marshmallow' (VN0A4U3B19A)
Sandy Liang built her label in New York in 2014, drawing on the city she grew up in, and Delancey names a street that runs through the Lower East Side. A colourway titled after a specific block is doing something different from one named after a colour: it fixes the shoe to a place, which is the whole premise of her work. True White handles the trim, keeping the pair readable as a classic rather than as a fashion exercise.
It released on February 21, 2020, the first of two collections she produced with the brand. The shoe underneath is unmodified: a padded ankle collar, a reinforced toe, metal eyelets, the leather sidestripe and a vulcanised rubber sole with its waffle tread. Designer collaborations on this silhouette usually change the materials or the graphics and leave the shape alone, because the outline is the reason anyone wanted the collaboration in the first place.