Renowned tailor Martin Greenfield has died at the age of 95. The information was confirmed by his children through a statement published on social networks. Greenfield was known for having dressed presidents such as Donald Trump, Dwight Eisenhower and Barack Obama. He was also responsible for tailoring the outfits of artists such as Leonardo di Caprio and Frank Sinatra.
"An Extraordinary Life, A Lasting Legacy. Martin Greenfield worked at the factory for 71 years, he loved meeting, dressing, and befriending world leaders, celebrities, athletes, and everyone else. May his memory be a blessing to everyone who had the pleasure to meet him," his children wrote in a statement posted on Instagram.
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According to AFP, the tailor dressed presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, the gangster Meyer Lansky, and artists such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Paul Newman, Martin Scorsese, Denzel Washington and Michael Jackson. In addition, he made clothes for films, Broadway shows and television.
Interned in the Auschwitz extermination camp, before being transferred to Buchenwald, where he was liberated by the US army in 1945, Greenfield washed clothes for Nazi guards until one day he broke the collar of one of their shirts. After spanking him, he returned the garment to him. A classmate taught him how to sew and he managed to repair it.
"The first day I wore that shirt, I learned that clothes have power," Greenfield recounted seven decades later, quoted the New York Times.
He emigrated to the United States in 1947. He was 19 years old and alone because his parents and three brothers had died in the countryside. I only had 10 dollars in my pocket. The first thing he did was change his birth name, Maximilian Gründfeld, to Martin Greenfield.
For 30 years he worked as a floor boy at the GGG clothing factory, where over the years he rose through the ranks until he became production manager. In 1977, the owner decided to close and that's when Greenfield bought it and founded Martin Greenfield Clothiers. Thus he turned the factory into an emblematic place for presidents, politicians, actors, athletes and other influential people.
"With fifty highly specialized employees, it is currently the only surviving unionized clothing workshop in New York and run by his sons Jay and Tod," explained AFP.
