TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — February marks the start of Black History Month and KGUN 9 is highlighting local, black-owned businesses that are making an impact in our community.
Ignis Clothing was created by Tucson native Ian Urquhart who has an imperfect lifestyle business that is all about representation, creativity and being bold, just like the name of his clothing brand.
“The most popular words at the time to describe someone's outfit was “fire." When we were trying to come up with names for the brand, I was said why don't we turn fire into Latin, and turn that into Ignis," said Ian Urquhart, Ignis Clothing.
Urquhart is focused on quality street wear at an affordable price. This was an idea that sparked back in 2017 as a school project where his teacher taught him how to use makeshift serigraph, which is the machine used for screen printing and fell in love creating designs.
“During hard times I try to remind myself that this started as just like a school project, and now look where it's at," said Urquhart.
Today, he has seasonal clothing drops that he designs and prints himself. Urquhart has also donated 25% of his profits to theHansen Foundation of Education, which is an organization focused on building classrooms for children in Kenya.
Urquhart is hosting his first ever fashion show on Apr. 21 at the "Z Mansion" in Tucson where he will also have other local black owned clothing companies there to showcase their work. In September, he will be heading to New York Fashion Week where some of his clothes will be hitting the runway.
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Brooke Chau is a reporter for KGUN 9. She was a part of Fresno State's newscast, Fresno State Focus and interned at KFSN-ABC30 in Fresno, CA before coming to KGUN 9. Share your story ideas and important issues with Brooke by emailing brooke.chau@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
