months after Kering took a minority stake in Icicle’s parent, ICCF Group, in April through its House of Wonders initiative, which is designed to support and scale emerging luxury brands from new markets. “Since walking away from Gucci, De Sarno has been conspicuously quiet, at least by the standards fashion usually demands of its departed creatives,” said David Watts, founder of David M Watts Advisory. “No hasty consultancy announcements, no flurry of guest editorships, just the occasional interview where he said the sort of things most designers think but rarely say out loud. Fashion has problems, he suggested. The industry has lost its way, he implied, chasing spectacle over substance, virality over craft. It was refreshing, honestly, to hear a former creative director speak plainly rather than recycle the usual platitudes about heritage and evolution.” Watts added that the appointment lands with delicious irony. “The man who diagnosed fashion’s ailments so candidly is now stepping back into the very system he critiqued, this time under a Chinese ownership structure with Kering sitting somewhere in the capital table. It is a curious full circle, and I suspect not lost on De Sarno himself.” At Icicle, restraint is the starting point Founded in 1997 by Ye Shouzeng and his wife Shawna Tao, Icicle runs more than 200 stores with the majority in Mainland China, plus a Paris flagship on the Rond-Point des Champs-Élysées and a concession at Le Bon Marché. The label has built its identity around natural materials and understated design, using naturally pigmented wool, silk, cashmere and linen. Icicle has reportedly achieved double-digit compound annual growth in recent years. According to Yicai Global, its revenue exceeded 300 million euros (US$324 million) last year.  That gives De Sarno an interesting problem or perhaps an unusually straightforward one. His tenure at Gucci was defined partly by an attempt to impose restraint on one of the industry’s most recognisable houses, through a quieter visual language that emphasised tailoring and sensuality over the maximalism associated with his predecessor Alessandro Michele. De Sarno also brings a track record that predates Gucci. He spent a decade at Valentino, where he served as design director alongside Pierpaolo Piccioli. That distinction matters because Icicle is not asking De Sarno to reinvent the brand from scratch. Quiet, material-led, logo-free is what the brand already is and is very close to the design philosophy De Sarno articulated during his time at Gucci. “I’ve always been fascinated by design beyond the final product, from the origins of raw materials to the craftsmanship that shapes them. I was drawn to Icicle by the deep alignment between its principles and my own creative philosophy,” De Sarno said.  Moving toward China  Chinese groups have been increasingly looking to European creative talent to help build brands with international ambitions. Hermes-backed Shang Xia appointed London-based Yang Li in 2021. Bosideng named Kim Jones artistic director of its premium line Areal in October 2025, then put the collection into Galeries Lafayette Haussmann in January 2026. Icicle itself was part of the earlier wave that simply opened Paris stores and waited. However, different to previous cases, De Sarno gets house, every category and a reporting line that puts Bénédicte Laloux, the woman who has shaped Icicle womenswear from the Paris studio since 2013, underneath him as design director of the women’s show collection. “What remains to be seen is whether De Sarno brings his critique with him, or whether the machine simply absorbs another idealist the way it always has. Either way, worth watching closely,” Watts concluded. Further reading: Homecoming: How Maria Grazia Chiuri could rebuild Fendi’s momentum.