Icicle, the Kering-backed Chinese fashion house, has opened its second garden store in a cluster of Qing-era buildings above Hangzhou’s West Lake.
The two-story gray-brick structure blends Chinese and Western references and was designated a municipal cultural relic site in 2013, a rarity for a retail address.
The west wing layers Icicle’s womenswear across two floors, with the brand’s growing menswear line finding space on the upper level.
A dedicated Carven boutique sits within the complex, conceived as the residence of a well-traveled woman, finished with hand-laid brick, lacquered doors and soft detailing.
For Kering’s Chinese investment thesis, the store is a statement that luxury can anchor itself in cultural memory rather than new-build malls.
The brand promised that the remarkable location would find new life, bringing the poetic past into the present, a sentiment that now has architecture to prove it.
The project ties fashion retail to literary heritage, honoring the poet Chen Duansheng, who wrote her ballad novel Regenerated Destiny in the same hillside.
