Ports International

It evolved into a women's fashion business with Vancouver-born Luke Tanabe, whose parents had been Japanese immigrants to Canada, as its designer and was renamed Ports International in 1966.

Tanabe retired in 1989 and sold Ports and Tabi to Toronto-based Etac Sales Ltd. (ESL), which had been co-founded by Chinese-Canadian entrepreneur Alfred K.T.

[4] Alfred Chan re-acquired a Chinese apparel factory in Xiamen, two test stores in Shanghai and Xiamen, and long-term rights to the Ports brand in Asia and Australia as well as the Tabi brand name for 6 million CAD[5] from ESL's receivers and eventually decided to sell all Ports retail operations in the US and the UK.

[6][7] In 1994, Chan created Ports Design Ltd. with his wife Fiona Cibani in Xiamen and listed the company at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (0589.HK) in 2003.

[10] Xiamen-produced Ports was and is perceived by Chinese consumers as an attractive Western brand while retailing below European and American designer goods, a fact that the company, also by hiring advertising models such as Claudia Schiffer and Kate Moss, has used to its advantage.

[11] In 2015, Ports Design Ltd. was renamed Portico International Holdings Ltd., based in Hong Kong and incorporated in Bermuda.

[12][13] In 2011, Ports 1961 operated stores in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, West Hollywood, Manhattan, Paris, London (shop-in-shop) and mainland China.

[15] In mid-2014, Ports named French-Serbian designer Milan Vukmirovic, a former Gucci and Jil Sander employee, creative director of its menswear division.

In August 2019, Fabien Baron and Karl Templer became the new creative directors of Ports 1961,[22] replacing Natasa Casalj who had left a few months earlier.

[23] Since then, the Ports 1961 designers "broke away from the chic, minimalist attitude that had characterized the label thus far" and offer collections that are "more youthful, playing with colors and with a unisex edge".