Fans of Ports 1961 have been buying their men’s collection – Ports International – overseas for years, but now Tia Cibani and her sister Fiona Cibani, who created and design for the company, are launching the line’s very own collection of menswear. The New York-based company will launch with the Fall 2011 collection, and will be designed under the creative direction of Fiona Cibani.
If it’s anything like the women’s collections, it will be made up of timeless looks, with an emphasis on quality craftsmanship and intricate detail.
While the collection is supposed to hit department stores and specialty boutiques right when it launches, Ports 1961 stores are also in the works. Possible locations include New York, Paris, and Milan, and the first shop may open as soon as mid-2011.
When speaking to WWD, designer Fiona Cibani stressed that the time for this launch was “right,” adding that the Ports 1961 clients “were asking for it…we really believe in menswear, and think it’s necessary to be in this market. We want it to be the same caliber and have the same sophistication as our women’s collection. We are going to nurture it, and we want it to be equal in size to the women’s business.”
images via WWD
Update to original story published 12/22/10: We were able to get a sneak peek at some of the sketches of the debut menswear collection prior to the January 17 Milan show. From the looks of it, the brand will be sticking to its mix of polished classics balanced with sculptural, multi-textured designs, all the while making use of innovative fabric manipulations.
Ian Hylton led the menswear team as creative director and we’re told that the collection was inspired by “the historical and stylistic Italian background […] as in the Renaissance, the rebirth of the classical man has been re-interpreted in a contemporary key. The clothing is molded and sculpted as a second skin, recalling the act of sculpting a block of marble to reach the perfect ideal everlasting beauty, perfect proportions, symmetry and harmony of the ancient Greeks, rendered with a sophisticated contemporary feel.”
