A pair of 19-year-old friends is headed back to college this month after a dizzying summer that saw them launch their own clothing line.
Wilbert
Williams of suburban Flossmoor, and his high school buddy, Lamar Jones of
suburban Homewood, created and started the Suburban Knight clothing line and
held a special friends-and-family launch party July 29. The event was held at
Akin Clothing Boutique, 1313 S. Halsted, on the Near West Side.
Starting
his second year at University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff this school year, Williams
told the Defender at the party that he had been into fashion for as long as he
could remember. He had been sketching designs and had a desire to develop them.
He
wondered, though, how to make it his livelihood. Williams wanted to figure out
“how I can do something I love and make money at the same time.”
As Jones
headed back home in May after finishing his first year at Southern Illinois
University-Edwardsville, he was broke and unemployed. Jones said he started a
lawn care business (the big-boy way of cutting grass for cash) but wanted to do
more.
Williams
admits that he didn’t take his friend seriously when Jones approached Williams
about being part of starting a clothing label.
But Jones
was serious.
Now, “we
have a really great partnership,” Williams said.
The
Suburban Knight line features T-shirts, crews (now available) and jeans (coming
soon), which the designers call “upscale, urban apparel,” and encourages their
mantra “Live. Fight. Die.” Items are priced starting at $30.
Williams
explained that label’s name helps dispel class barriers.
He said
youth from the suburbs are perceived to be privileged while a knight is a
symbol of strength. Together the words “Suburban” and “Knight,” according to
the young entrepreneurs, “show the contradiction between the two terms to
eliminate class barriers and show that there’s a knight within all of us.”
Jones was
joined at the party by his parents, Lanissa Spear an Alvin Jones, and other
family and friends. Williams was joined by, among others, his sister, Ashley
Williams, who coordinated the party, and cousin, Elijah Adams, who helped to
ring up sales.
Their
clothes are available at Akin.
Copyright
2011 Chicago Defender
