Barnegat Fashion Designer To Launch Nonprofit In December

BARNEGAT, NJ — A Barnegat woman whose fashion designs were seen on the runway at New York fashion week in September is launching a nonprofit to help homeless people in Ocean County.

Marcia Arnsparger Santiago is the owner and designer behind KlosetSlayer, a fashion company for both men and women. The designs that she crafted in her home studio in Barnegat have landed on magazine covers, the runways of fashion week and reality shows.

Santiago has worked with models and celebrities over the years, but starting in December she’ll be working with the Atlantic City Rescue Mission and other homeless shelters around Ocean County to organize a selection of formal clothes that people can wear to job interviews.

“It will provide shelters and women’s shelters with clothes for them to be able to go to an interview because a lot of them come with just the clothes on their back,” Santiago told Patch. “This way it gives them a chance to help them in the right direction.”

Santiago plans to officially launch the foundation on Dec. 1 and will announce more information through KlosetSlayer’s social media about what items are needed and where people can donate clothes.

“I want to get more involved in this area because I’ve seen a lot more homelessness in this area that I’ve never seen before,” Santiago said.

Santiago has called Barnegat home since 2013 along with her husband Jamaal Jackson. While she worked as a surgical nurse in Galloway, she began drawing and working on designs in her free time.

After she gave birth to her son Baylon and returned from maternity leave, being on her feet all day was a challenge. Despite not having artistic training, she followed her passion for design and started her own clothing line from her home in Barnegat.

Since she founded KlosetSlayer in 2014, her clothes have been featured on the runway and television. Several reality show stars wore her clothes on VH-1’s “Black Ink Crew.” Her clothes will be featured on another reality show that debuts on Netflix in January.

“It’s definitely all coming together at this one point,” she said. “It’s cool to see that we’re being seen in other places.”

KlosetSlayer sells its clothing online with Santiago designing the clothes and working with outside seamstresses, tailors and manufacturers to make the clothes. She occasionally ships the final products from her home. Through KlosetSlayer’s website and app, Santiago sees about 25 sales a day.

In September, KlosetSlayer’s styles hit the iconic New York fashion week runway with a red and black color theme as a tribute to her husband who is battling a blood cancer.

“Black and red was a big concept this year,” Santiago said. “We wanted to make sure we added a lot of red to the runway this year, even if it was shoes, in honor of him since he couldn’t be there at that time.”

Santiago will soon return to Manhattan to showcase 45 pieces of her clothing on the showroom floor of The Copper Room in January.

Even with all the acclaim from her designs, Santiago has held on to her scrubs and found time to help at the hospital during the coronavirus pandemic.

“I still do some work when they need me with the COVID-19 situation,” she said. “They do have better scrubs now — I must say.”

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