Icicle, the Shanghai- and Paris-based Chinese language vogue model recognized for its clear, minimalist aesthetic and vertically built-in manufacturing, has appointed Sabato De Sarno as artistic director.
De Sarno will oversee the model’s artistic path throughout girls’s and males’s ready-to-wear, equipment, and eyewear. His first assortment for Icicle will probably be introduced for Fall/Winter 2027.
“Since Icicle was based in 1997, our ambition has at all times been to reconnect individuals with nature by means of enduring vogue,” Icicle CEO and co-founder Ye Shouzeng, who co-founded Icicle with Shawna Tao in Shanghai nearly 30 years in the past, mentioned in a press release shared with Vogue Enterprise on Monday. “We imagine this imaginative and prescient can solely be realized by bringing collectively artistic expertise from around the globe with Icicle’s deep cultural roots and industrial energy in China. Sabato’s arrival marks an vital step ahead on this path.”
The Italian designer was most just lately (between January 2023 and February 2025) artistic director of Kering’s largest model, Gucci. Previous to Gucci, he spent greater than a decade at Valentino, rising by means of the ranks to develop into vogue director, overseeing each males’s and ladies’s collections. Earlier than becoming a member of Valentino in 2009, he labored at Dolce & Gabbana.
At this yr’s Salone del Cell, De Sarno stepped into the function of curator with “Insieme”, an exhibition at Piscina Cozzi created in collaboration with the Italian version of Self-importance Truthful. It showcased authentic design objects from 12 Italian artisanal corporations, together with Venetian high-end textile and inside furnishings firm Rubelli and historic luxurious glassmaker Venini, famend for its Murano glass. The façade featured an set up created in collaboration with French artist JR, consisting of portraits of the 79 artisans concerned within the challenge. In a wide-ranging interview he gave to Vogue Runway’s Tiziana Cardini forward of the exhibition opening, when requested about his subsequent transfer, De Sarno mentioned: “I’m not in search of one thing massive or small; I’m in search of the correct place for me.“
Icicle is a part of ICCF Group, which additionally owns French fashion brand Carven. In keeping with the discharge, Icicle’s “artistic mannequin is constructed round a twin construction spanning Paris and Shanghai, and it operates greater than 200 shops worldwide, together with flagship places in Beijing, Shanghai and Paris.”
Bénédicte Laloux, who has formed Icicle’s womenswear artistic id and the Paris design studio since 2013, will proceed as design director of the ladies’s present assortment, working below De Sarno’s artistic path.
De Sarno’s appointment at Icicle will re-establish his reference to Kering, albeit on a restricted foundation. Earlier this yr, Kering CEO Luca de Meo introduced the group’s minority funding in Icicle. “Our funding in Icicle can also be about feeling extra at house in China, and having buddies there who might help us perceive what’s going on, opening doorways into the Chinese language ecosystem,” de Meo defined at the group’s Capital Markets Day in April.
That is the most recent in a wave of collaborations between inventive administrators who labored for main European luxurious manufacturers and Asian vogue corporations, together with Francesco Risso with Fast Retailing-owned casualwear brand GU, Kim Jones with Bosideng-owned Areal, Kris Van Assche with Chinese language sportswear large Anta, Daniel Fletcher with Mithridate and Clare Waight Keller with Uniqlo.
“I’ve at all times been fascinated by design past the ultimate product, from the origins of uncooked supplies to the craftsmanship that shapes them,” De Sarno mentioned. “I used to be drawn to Icicle by the deep alignment between its ideas and my very own artistic philosophy. Concord between people and nature is an thought Icicle has explored for almost 30 years, and it feels to me extra related in the present day than ever.”