Icicle, Chinese-style green luxury<

At a time when luxury is asked to improve its carbon footprint, does the example come from China? Synonymous with cheap manufacturing, with little regard for social and environmental standards, made in China does not generally have a good press. Icicle aims to shake up this preconception. Its logo, a stylized ideogram meaning "germinating seed", refers to Taoism advocating harmony with nature and the cycle of life.

Launched in 1997 by the couple Ye Shou Zeng and his wife Tao Xiao Ma, a graduate of the design school of the prestigious Dong Hua University, this brand from Shanghai aims to be “eco-friendly”. She is betting on “soft fashion” with clothes that you will love to wear for a long time. Natural materials, wool, cashmere, silk, most often worked in their natural colors or dyed with vegetable pigments, poppy seeds, Pu'er white tea, walnut bark, cedar wood...

For packaging, neither paper nor plastic but reusable tote bags and sugar cane fiber. "Icicle is of Chinese origin but its vocation is international and devoid of any temptation of ethnic nostalgia", explains the Frenchwoman Isabelle Capron, vice-president of Icicle Shanghai Fashion Group, which is leading the deployment outside China.

International clientele

Recruited more than six years ago, she began by setting up a design studio and a showroom in Paris, employing a total of 45 people today. The first flagship outside of China has just opened in the heart of the Golden Triangle, 35 avenue George-V. Nearly 500 square meters in four levels, the last of which houses a bookstore dedicated to the art of living and Chinese literature.

“We are targeting international customers visiting Paris. 30% are Chinese, and their number increases every year, underlines Isabelle Capron. The brand was designed for urban, active people who travel a lot and appreciate the comfort of our clothes,” adds the manager. With prices starting at 350 euros for jeans, 1,500 euros for a water-repellent trench coat and more than 2,000 for a double-sided wool and silk coat, Icicle is high-end, without reaching the stratospheric levels of the big houses.

5,000 years of textile history

Before launching in the West, Icicle built a network of 270 stores (branches and franchisees) in 70 cities in China. The group reported sales of 160 million euros last year, representing a “retail” business volume of 250 million euros, up 23% from one year to the next. Manufacturing, made in China, is carried out in its three production units. “This country has more than 5,000 years of textile history,” recalls Isabelle Capron.

The brand is not the first to cross the borders of the Middle Kingdom. Coming from Taiwan, the fashion house Shiatzy Chen parades at Paris Fashion Week and has opened two boutiques there. Originally from Hong Kong, Shanghai Tang, on the other hand, failed to break through and had to close its stores in Paris and London. Its owner, the Richemont group, ended up selling the business two years ago to an Italian entrepreneur, Alessandro Bastagli. Finally, Hermès enabled the launch of Shang Xia, a brand that honors ancestral Chinese craftsmanship. So far, she has had more success in her country than in the West.