Dressing the runway with SSLqAmerican Born StyleSSRq

By Guy D’Astolfo

NILES — Karisa Tondo-Kramer has got an eye-opener for those who think fashionable clothing is no longer manufactured in the United States.

The Girard High School senior will stage “American Born Style,” a fashion show that uses only American-made clothing, at 7 p.m. Saturday at Art Outreach Gallery in Eastwood Mall.

Tondo-Kramer has selected apparel from various stores in the mall. Her classmates at Girard High will serve as models.

“I’ve always had an interest in fashion,” said the Girard cheerleader, who plans to attend Art Institute of Pittsburgh to study fashion and retail management. “Once I found out I had to do a visual [project] for the Passion for Fashion scholarship for the Art Institute, I thought doing a fashion show would be a good idea.”

Tondo-Kramer, who works at Forever 21 clothing store at Eastwood, contacted the gallery and got approval to use the space for her show.

The daughter of Jim Kramer and Joyce Tondo-Kramer, she is on the Fashion Advisory Board at Eastwood Mall. At Girard High, she is a member of the Teen Institute, Key Club and Student Council.

Mall stores were happy to loan her clothes for the show. She found American-made brands Affliction, Sinful and Lucky at Dillard’s; Extreme Couture at Champs; and other items from Macy’s, Forever 21, Limited Too and Raven Rock Workwear.

Art Outreach Gallery is in the concourse between Macy’s and JCPenney’s. The show is free, but attendees are asked to bring a nonperishable food item to donate to Second Harvest Food Bank.