中国时装品牌之禾亮相巴黎时装周

On March 5, during Paris Fashion Week, the Chinese fashion brand ICICLE made a striking appearance at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, presenting its Autumn/Winter 2026 collection through a fashion show featuring its Atelier collection, along with an exhibition titled An Exploration of the Five Colors — The ICICLE Spectrum.

Minimalist yet elegant and distinctive garments, with clean cuts, presented by models from diverse cultural backgrounds, showcased a perfect combination of Chinese philosophy and French savoir-faire.

"Chinese aesthetic thinking shapes how I approach design: the value of emptiness, the intelligence of restraint, the quiet dignity of things that don't demand attention. These ideas — comfort, proportion, a sense of propriety — form the underlying architecture. They guide where a seam falls and what a garment does not say," said Bénédicte Laloux, creative director of ICICLE.

Laloux was born in France and has been living in Paris for the past 25 years. She also enjoys reinterpreting and playing with the notions of French chic and femininity. "East meets West — French elegance meets reverence for what already exists and what nature has bestowed upon us," she added.

Founded in Shanghai in 1997 by Ye Shouzeng and Tao Xiaoma, ICICLE's development in China has always been rooted in the concept of "the harmony between humanity and nature". "On the international market, this is also part of what makes ICICLE unique. We aim to use fashion to interpret China's traditional culture and philosophy, providing a 'contemporary' translation that allows these traditions to be incorporated into everyday life today," Ye said.

In this spirit, ICICLE uses noble natural fibers — such as cashmere, linen, wool, silk, and cotton — to create garments designed for everyday life and work, with an emphasis on elegance, comfort, simplicity and functionality.

The on-site exhibition focused on the fundamental colors of Chinese tradition — white, blue-green, black, red and yellow — which derive from the system of the Five Elements (metal, wood, water, fire and earth).

Victoria Marenzi, ICICLE's global communications director, believed this demonstrates how an ancient system of thought can inspire contemporary fashion design. She said: "We began introducing these ideas through our magazine two years ago, and over the past two seasons during Paris Fashion Week we have expanded that narrative through the collections and now with this exhibition. For us, color is not decoration, it is a way of understanding the world."

The exhibition also showcased craft collaborations between ICICLE and traditional Chinese artisans, including the "thousand-layer sole" paired with canton gauze, as well as Dong Cloth, a textile heritage preserved by the Dong women living in Southwest China's Guizhou province.

Currently, ICICLE operates 235 stores worldwide, including 230 in nearly 110 cities across China. In 2013, the ICICLE Paris Design Center was established, aiming to leverage the city as a window to Europe's experienced fashion talent, as well as to gain comprehensive expertise in areas such as store design and communications.

In 2018, the company acquired the French brand Carven, founded in 1945. In 2019, ICICLE unveiled its global flagship store at 35 Avenue George V in Paris. In 2021, the ICCF Group — ICICLE Carven China France Group — was officially established and headquartered in Paris.

"We approach international development with Chinese culture and pride, while also adapting to local markets. For example, in France, ICICLE operates in a French way — we aim for an integrative approach and never want to be seen as an outsider," Ye said. Currently, ICICLE and Carven together employ 150 people in France, with Laloux, ICICLE's creative director, as the first employee ICICLE hired in Paris.

ICICLE leverages French craftsmanship, collaborative design between China and France and high-quality fabrics from Italy, Japan and China, as well as the scale and competitive advantages of Chinese manufacturing, to create complementary and mutually beneficial strengths for the brand in both domestic and international markets.

For Ye, the domestic and overseas markets are of equal strategic importance. ICICLE plans to open more overseas stores in the coming years, but by taking its premium fashion positioning, ICICLE has chosen to enter mature markets directly, where quality and design are held to strict standards. Europe is therefore ICICLE's primary overseas market. Beyond Paris, the brand is also targeting London, Milan and other key European cities.

"In the long term, the US market is also part of our plan, although current geopolitical conditions and tariff policies remain a challenge. Additionally, we are considering neighboring Asian markets — for example, Japan," added Ye, who sees Japan as a significant opportunity, with a population of more than 100 million and a highly sophisticated high-end consumer base.