EXCLUSIVE: Icicle Opens Up on Avenue George V in Paris

PARIS — For its first outpost abroad, high-end contemporary Chinese label Icicle has opened a polished, minimalist space on the tony Avenue George V to showcase its naturally colored wool, silk and cotton designs. Despite a golden triangle address — home to brands like Louis Vuitton and Hermès — and a profusion of luxurious cashmere outerwear and precisely tailored suits in its new store, Icicle is not after designer-label status. “It’s another category of brand — it’s a brand to serve people,” said Tao Xiaoma, one of the label’s founders. Tao, who is called “Shawna” by non-Chinese colleagues, spoke to WWD from the top floor of the four-story boutique, a sparsely populated mansion lined with racks of chic attire for men and women, including tapered trousers for men, seamless knits and roomy suit jackets. The Icicle store in Paris.  Courtesy The company has 270 stores in China, and counts more than 2,500 employees, but is little known in the West — except as the owner of historic French fashion house Carven, which it bought last year. “We don’t use ‘affordable luxury’ to describe ourselves — we say ‘reasonably priced,’” explained the executive. “It’s really a high-quality lifestyle brand,” she added. The brand’s signature air coat, for example

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