The news broke just a short while ago: Sabato De Sarno has been named creative director of Icicle, the Chinese fashion brand founded in Shanghai in 1997 and now at the center of an ambitious international expansion project. For the former creative director of Gucci—who left the fashion house in February 2025 after just two years—this is his first high-profile role since his time at Kering’s flagship brand. De Sarno will take charge of men’s and women’s ready-to-wear, accessories, and eyewear, with his first collection set to launch in fall 2027. Bénédicte Laloux, who joined Icicle’s design team in Paris in 2013 and has served as creative director of womenswear since 2019, will continue to lead the design of the women’s runway collection, working under De Sarno’s direction. Icicle, however, declined to comment on whether Mark van Beek, creative director of the men’s atelier since October 2025, will remain in his role.
Founded in Shanghai by Ye Shouzeng and his wife Shawna Tao, Icicle is now the flagship brand of the ICCF Group—which also includes Carven—and has over 200 stores in China, including locations in Beijing and Shanghai. The brand has forged a distinct identity centered on a minimalist aesthetic, the use of natural materials, and a fashion philosophy rooted in the concept of the “natural way”: natural fibers retained in their original colors or dyed with organic pigments, with a particular focus on sustainability and product longevity. This is not, therefore, simply a new assignment for De Sarno. Icicle is a well-established Chinese company with a strong presence in its home market and a significant industrial platform, which in recent years has begun to build an international identity. Its debut on the official Paris Fashion Week schedule, its expansion into wholesale, its two Parisian boutiques, and its retail space inside Le Bon Marché are all part of this strategy. And most importantly, five months ago, Kering made a minority investment in the company. The deal was announced during the group’s Capital Markets Day in Florence and is part of House of Wonders, the new investment platform launched as part of Kering’s revitalization plan led by Luca de Meo. The goal is to identify opportunities in new categories and emerging luxury markets.
De Sarno’s appointment therefore appears to be consistent with a very specific strategy: Icicle aims to become a global brand, and to that end, it has chosen a designer whose background is deeply rooted in Italian fashion and major international fashion houses. “Since Icicle was founded in 1997, our ambition has always been to reconnect people with nature through fashion built to last,” said Ye, the brand’s CEO and co-founder, as reported by WWD. “We believe this vision can only be realized by bringing together creative talent from around the world with Icicle’s deep cultural roots and its industrial strength in China. Sabato’s arrival represents an important step in this direction.” De Sarno himself, in the caption of his Instagram post announcing the news, emphasized the affinity between his own vision and that of the brand: “I’ve always been fascinated by design beyond the final product—from the origins of raw materials to the craftsmanship that gives them form. I was drawn to Icicle by the deep alignment between its principles and my creative philosophy.”
Icicle’s international project is already at an advanced stage. The brand is considering London and Milan for its next store openings, and according to Louise Xu, executive president of ICCF Group and Icicle, about 90% of the business currently comes from ready-to-wear, while there is “enormous potential” for handbags, shoes, and accessories. The company continues to invest in China as well: it recently opened a new space in Hangzhou next to the historic West Lake, featuring a boutique dedicated to Carven, while the launch of Icicle Market, a new lifestyle concept store, is planned for 2027. In my opinion, De Sarno’s appointment is particularly interesting when viewed within a broader trend. This is because Icicle is not the only Asian group or brand to have turned to designers trained at the pinnacle of Western fashion in recent years. It’s yet another sign of a phenomenon that’s becoming increasingly evident in the fashion industry: Asia is looking with growing interest toward Western creativity and is beginning to recruit some of its most established designers to build brands with global ambitions. The most recent and significant example we’ve discussed is undoubtedly that of Francesco Risso, former creative director of Marni, who was appointed creative director of GU, the Japanese brand owned by the Fast Retailing Group, which also owns Uniqlo. But the trend also involves other big names: Kim Jones has joined the Chinese group Bosideng; Clare Waight Keller, after her time at Givenchy, has become Uniqlo’s global creative director; and Kris Van Assche, former artistic director of Dior Homme and Berluti, has collaborated with Anta, the Chinese sportswear giant.
These are different paths, but the trend is the same: Western creative talent is beginning to move toward the East with a frequency and significance that would have been hard to imagine just a few years ago. For decades, the relationship was almost one-sided: major Asian conglomerates looked to Europe to acquire brands, heritage, know-how, and designers, but also to gain the international legitimacy that seemed essential for transforming a local brand into a global name. Tokyo, Shanghai, Seoul, and other major Asian hubs boast enormous markets, powerful industrial conglomerates, integrated production chains, and a distribution capacity that can offer creatives a scale that is difficult to replicate. At the same time, many of these conglomerates have now reached such a level of maturity that they no longer need to simply import a Western aesthetic; rather, they are seeking talent capable of giving shape and international recognition to identities born in Asia. The real question at this point is not merely whether Asia will succeed in building its own major international brands, but whether it will also succeed in becoming one of the new global centers of fashion creativity.
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