Icicle to open in Paris its first flagship outside China

By

Anaïs Lerévérend

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Apr 19, 2019

Icicle is one of the Chinese luxury industry's success stories. The men's and women's ready-to-wear label built its reputation over the course of more than 20 years in China, thanks to a timeless style and the use of natural and sustainable materials, before setting its sights on Paris in more recent times. The French capital’s fashion world discovered the Icicle group when it emerged as the buyer of luxury label Carven from the Paris trade court last October. At the time however, Icicle wasn’t yet operating any monobrand stores outside China. This will change from next September, with the opening of Icicle’s first international flagship on avenue George V in Paris.

Indeed, the Chinese label has a special connection with Paris. Even before buying Carven, Icicle’s owners and founders, Shouzeng Ye and Shawna Tao, opened an office in the French capital as the base for the team in charge of the label’s Atelier line, which tapped Parisian creativity and sourced locally the prototypes for the most upmarket line in the range. Production-wise, Icicle relies on its own Chinese factories for all of its collections.

With clearly more ambitious intentions, following the acquisition of Carven, which has now started a soft relaunch phase, Icicle will be gaining a firmer foothold in Europe with the opening of its first Parisian store. A very fine 700-sqaure-metre shop at 35 avenue George V, which will showcase the menswear and womenswear range of the label's various lines, from Atelier to the permanent collection to the ‘made in Earth’ line, produced with sustainable materials.

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The store is set to open in September, and will be officially inaugurated a little later. It will be Icicle’s first international foray, useful to give the label time to gauge how it will be received on the European market.

Icicle’s revenue is reportedly about €300 million. The label is also opening more stores on its domestic market, and a new flagship of a similar size to the future Parisian store was inaugurated in Shanghai a few months ago.