Icicle has appointed Sabato De Sarno as creative director and given him responsibility for womenswear, menswear, accessories and eyewear. The brand also set a public milestone: De Sarno’s first collection will show for Fall/Winter 2027, putting a fixed timetable on the new creative leadership’s first visible work.
The Shanghai- and Paris-based label was founded in 1997 by Ye Shouzeng and Shawna Tao and describes itself as built around a minimalist aesthetic and vertically integrated production. In a statement Ye Shouzeng framed the hire as strategic, saying, "Since Icicle was founded in 1997, our ambition has always been to reconnect people with nature through enduring fashion."
De Sarno arrives after a two-year tenure as creative director at Gucci from January 2023 to February 2025. His CV also includes more than a decade at Valentino, where he rose to fashion director, and earlier roles at Dolce & Gabbana. He recently curated "Insieme," an exhibition at Piscina Cozzi that assembled objects from a dozen Italian artisanal houses and included an installation by the artist JR featuring portraits of 79 participating artisans.
Asked about his next move ahead of that exhibition, De Sarno said, "I’m not looking for something big or small; I’m looking for the right place for me." He added that Icicle appealed because of shared priorities, saying, "I’ve always been fascinated by design beyond the final product, from the origins of raw materials to the craftsmanship that shapes them," and, "Harmony between humans and nature is an ideaicle has explored for nearly 30 years, and it feels to me more relevant today than ever."
Operationally Icicle sits inside ICCF Group, which also owns Carven, and runs a creative model split between Paris and Shanghai. The company operates more than 200 stores worldwide, including flagship locations in Beijing, Shanghai and Paris. Bénédicte Laloux, who has led the brand’s womenswear identity and the Paris design studio since 2013, will remain as design director for the women’s show collection and will report to De Sarno.
The appointment also intersects with recent capital moves: Kering made a minority investment in Icicle earlier this year. At Kering’s Capital Markets Day in April CEO Luca de Meo said, "Our investment in Icicle is also about feeling more at home in China, and having friends there who can help us understand what is going on, opening doors into the Chinese ecosystem."
De Sarno’s move follows a pattern of senior European luxury creatives taking roles with Asian fashion companies. For Icicle the hire signals a clear push to raise its international design profile while maintaining continuity in womenswear through Laloux. The next concrete test of that strategy will arrive when the brand and De Sarno present the Fall/Winter 2027 runway collection.
