Icicle, the Shanghai- and Paris-based Chinese fashion brand known for its clean, minimalist aesthetic and vertically integrated production, has appointed Sabato De Sarno as creative director.
De Sarno will oversee the brand’s creative direction across women’s and men’s ready-to-wear, accessories, and eyewear. His first collection for Icicle will be presented for Fall/Winter 2027.
“Since Icicle was founded in 1997, our ambition has always been to reconnect people with nature through enduring fashion,” Icicle CEO and co-founder Ye Shouzeng, who co-founded Icicle with Shawna Tao in Shanghai almost 30 years ago, said in a statement shared with Vogue Business on Monday. “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.”
The Italian designer was most recently (between January 2023 and February 2025) creative director of Kering’s largest brand, Gucci. Prior to Gucci, he spent more than a decade at Valentino, rising through the ranks to become fashion director, overseeing both men’s and women’s collections. Before joining Valentino in 2009, he worked at Dolce & Gabbana.
At this year’s Salone del Mobile, De Sarno stepped into the role of curator with “Insieme”, an exhibition at Piscina Cozzi created in collaboration with the Italian edition of Vanity Fair. It showcased original design objects from 12 Italian artisanal companies, including Venetian high-end textile and interior furnishings company Rubelli and historic luxury glassmaker Venini, renowned for its Murano glass. The façade featured an installation created in collaboration with French artist JR, consisting of portraits of the 79 artisans involved in the project. In a wide-ranging interview he gave to Vogue Runway’s Tiziana Cardini ahead of the exhibition opening, when asked about his next move, De Sarno said: “I’m not looking for something big or small; I’m looking for the right place for me.“
Icicle is part of ICCF Group, which also owns French fashion brand Carven. According to the release, Icicle’s “creative model is built around a dual structure spanning Paris and Shanghai, and it operates more than 200 stores worldwide, including flagship locations in Beijing, Shanghai and Paris.”
Bénédicte Laloux, who has shaped Icicle’s womenswear creative identity and the Paris design studio since 2013, will continue as design director of the women’s show collection, working under De Sarno’s creative direction.
De Sarno’s appointment at Icicle will re-establish his connection with Kering, albeit on a limited basis. Earlier this year, Kering CEO Luca de Meo announced the group’s minority investment in Icicle. “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 Meo explained at the group’s Capital Markets Day in April.
This is the latest in a wave of collaborations between artistic directors who worked for major European luxury brands and Asian fashion companies, including Francesco Risso with Fast Retailing-owned casualwear brand GU, Kim Jones with Bosideng-owned Areal, Kris Van Assche with Chinese sportswear giant Anta, Daniel Fletcher with Mithridate and Clare Waight Keller with Uniqlo.
“I’ve always been fascinated by design beyond the final product, from the origins of raw materials to the craftsmanship that shapes them,” De Sarno said. “I was drawn to Icicle by the deep alignment between its principles and my own creative philosophy. Harmony between humans and nature is an idea Icicle has explored for nearly 30 years, and it feels to me more relevant today than ever.”
