Shouzeng Ye & Shawna Tao
Portrait
Founding couple of ICICLE, the reference brand of natural and sustainable fashion in China.
We created ICICLE in Shanghai in 1997 in a China that was in the midst of an economic awakening and rising urbanization. Our concern was to meet the clothing needs of a more urban and affluent population with the rapid development of the middle class, by creating a fashion with values that respect the environment and people. Graduates of Dong Hua University School of Design, we are passionate about textiles and natural materials. We are exploring a new path for fashion, based on our concept of "Made in Earth" inspired by the Chinese thought of harmony between man and nature.
We created an ICICLE design center in Paris in 2013 and opened the first Parisian boutique on Avenue George V in 2019. We rely on Mrs. Isabelle CAPRON, International Vice President and General Manager Paris, for the international development.
Isabelle Capron, answered the 1.618 interview as the founders' spokesperson.
What triggered your project?
The trigger for the creation of ICICLE was to offer fashion that is as useful to the new generation of active urbanites as it is environmentally friendly.
Tell us a story about your brand?
The creation of the brand name: ICE = purity of design - CICLE = eco-responsibility vs Nature
= ICICLE - for natural and sustainable fashion.
In Chinese, the meaning of the brand is "seed that sprouts", symbolizing the quest for a new path for fashion.
What major challenge did you face?
ICICLE was born in Shanghai in 1997 in a China in the midst of an economic awakening and rising urbanization. The concern of the founding couple was to meet the clothing needs of a more urban and appeased population with the rapid development of the middle class, and, because they were aware of the pollution in their country, to create a fashion with values and respect for the environment.
They are truly pioneers of this "slow fashion" and paradoxically ahead of the West.
The challenge is to put forward an attractive "New Made in China", which rhymes with quality, refinement and eco-friendliness
Any advice for future sustainable luxury entrepreneurs?
To make fashion ethics understandable and straightforward for its customers, in order to change their mentality.
Chic is always the final argument.
What is particularly unique about your brand?
ICICLE embodies, as a leader, a strong movement, that of the "New China": a very innovative wave of fashion brands that draw from their cultural heritage (5000 years of textile history) to create an international fashion with oriental values.
ICICLE proposes a new luxury, natural in its way of doing and its style, more reasonable and reasoned, which finds its inspiration in the Taoist thought of harmony between man and nature.
