PARIS — Five months after receiving a minority investment from Kering, Chinese fashion brand Icicle said on Monday it has appointed Sabato De Sarno as creative director, signaling the next step in its plan to grow a global business.
The Italian designer had been a free agent since parting ways with Gucci, Kering’s star brand, in February 2025 after a two-year tenure during which he steered the label toward a more minimal aesthetic.
De Sarno will oversee women’s and men’s ready-to-wear, accessories and eyewear, and will present his first collection for Icicle for the fall 2027 season.
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Bénédicte Laloux, who joined the Icicle design studio in Paris in 2013 and has been artistic director of womenswear since 2019, will remain as design director of the women’s show collection, working under De Sarno.
Icicle declined to comment on whether Mark van Beek, artistic director of the menswear atelier since September 2025, would also stay at the company.
Founded in 1997 in Shanghai by Ye Shouzeng and his wife Shawna Tao, Icicle operates more than 200 stores in China, including locations in Beijing and Shanghai.
The flagship brand of the ICCF Group, which also holds a minority stake in Carven, Icicle is known for minimalist, eco-friendly designs rooted in the concept of the “natural way,” built on natural fibers used with their original hues or dyed with organic pigments.
“Since Icicle was founded in 1997, our ambition has always been to reconnect people with nature through enduring fashion,” Ye, chief executive officer and co-founder of Icicle, said in a statement.
“We believe this vision can only be realized by bringing together creative talent from around the world with Icicle’s deep cultural roots and industrial strength in China. Sabato’s arrival marks an important step forward in this direction,” he added.
De Sarno said he was keen to explore the brand’s philosophy.
“I’ve always been fascinated by design beyond the final product, from the origins of raw materials to the craftsmanship that shapes them. I was drawn to Icicle by the deep alignment between its principles and my own creative philosophy,” he said.
“Harmony between humans and nature is an idea Icicle has explored for nearly thirty years, and it feels to me more relevant today than ever,” he added.
The Gucci post marked De Sarno’s first high-profile position after years as a second-in-command.
Born in 1983 near Naples, he began his career at Prada in 2003 before joining Dolce & Gabbana. In 2009, he moved to Valentino, where he held positions of increasing responsibility, finally being appointed fashion director overseeing both men’s and women’s collections.
Icicle made its debut on the official Paris Fashion Week calendar last year, marking its expansion into wholesale with ambitions to launch a global business.
“Before COVID[-19], we were just another Chinese brand, focused on the Chinese market, with a global design center in Paris. After COVID[-19], we found a new direction, which is to go global, with a clear timeline in mind,” Ye told WWD at the time.
Following the announcement of Kering’s investment in April, Louise Xu, executive president of ICCF Group and Icicle, said 90 percent of its business stems from rtw and it spies a “very huge potential” for bags, shoes and accessories.
The brand has two boutiques in Paris, in addition to a shop-in-shop at Le Bon Marché, and is considering London and Milan for future locations, she added, flagging consistent double-digit growth the past few years.
Icicle is also expanding in its domestic market. Last month, it opened a garden store adjacent to Hangzhou’s historic West Lake that also houses a dedicated Carven boutique.
In a second phase, the store will be expanded to include Icicle’s Museum Collaboration Capsule; Icicle Explore, its athleisure line; a café, as well as the launch of a new lifestyle store, Icicle Market, in 2027.
Kering’s investment, announced at the luxury group’s Capital Markets Day in Florence in April, marked the launch of House of Wonders, a new investment platform. Part of Kering CEO Luca de Meo’s turnaround plan, it will target opportunities in new categories and emerging luxury markets.
Joel Hazan, chief strategy and development officer at Kering, lauded Icicle’s performance in China amid a slump in consumer spending that has cast a chill over the luxury sector worldwide.
“They’ve been able to create a value proposition in China that’s proving more successful than what many of the Western brands have been doing in recent years, so we’re happy to learn from them,” he said.
“One of the things that House of Wonders is going to try to prove is that there is an opportunity for luxury brands emerging from non-historical, non-legacy luxury markets to take a space,” Hazan added. “There’s a world of brands out there that are not from Paris and Milan.”
