IAN was born in Glenelg, at his grandmother’s house. He attended Glenelg Primary School and Mallaig High School, and completed his education at Plockton High.
As a young man, he had developed an interest in fashion, and he took up an apprenticeship with Mateusz Zajac, a Polish tailor who had escaped from Eastern Europe and set up business in Inverness. Zajac recognised that Ian could do more with his life than ‘sew on buttons’, and encouraged him to become an architect.