Martin Greenfield, the Brooklyn tailor and Holocaust survivor whose factory made suits for US presidents, film stars and television productions, died on Wednesday, 20 March 2024, at a hospital in Manhasset, New York. He was 95. His sons announced his death on Instagram, writing that he had died comfortably.
Greenfield ran Martin Greenfield Clothiers from a third-floor office in its East Williamsburg factory, which he first entered as a teenage immigrant and later bought. His sons wrote that he had worked in the building for 71 years. The company continues to operate.
From Auschwitz to a Brooklyn factory floor
He was born Maxmilian Grünfeld on 9 August 1928 in Pavlovo, a village then in Czechoslovakia and now in Ukraine. At 14 he was deported to Auschwitz with his family. According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, he was the only member of his immediate family to survive. He was later held at Buchenwald, where the US Army liberated him in April 1945.
Greenfield learned to sew in the camp. Fox Television Stations reported that after he tore a Nazi soldier's shirt, another prisoner showed him how to mend it. He kept his own wartime story largely private for about 40 years.
He moved to the United States in 1947, aged 19, and found work as a floor boy at the GGG Clothing factory in East Williamsburg. He studied English at night school, became a US citizen and rose through the company to production manager. In 1977 he bought the factory and renamed it Martin Greenfield Clothiers. The business grew from six employees to 117 by 2010, according to JTA.
“The pain is still in my heart about my family”
Martin Greenfield, as quoted by Brooklyn Paper
Presidents, film sets and private labels
Greenfield's client list ran from Dwight Eisenhower to Barack Obama, according to JTA, and included Bill Clinton, Colin Powell and the former New York mayors Michael Bloomberg and Ed Koch. Actors and entertainers he dressed included Frank Sinatra, Paul Newman, Leonardo DiCaprio, Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon. He made suits for the HBO series Boardwalk Empire and the red suit Joaquin Phoenix wore in the 2019 film Joker.
Much of the factory's work was invisible to buyers. It produced private-label suits for brands including Donna Karan, Brooks Brothers and Band of Outsiders, alongside suits sold under Greenfield's own name. The company's website describes a process of 108 steps that includes hand stitching and steam pressing.
One story he told often concerned Eisenhower, whom he first met as a liberated teenager. When Eisenhower was preparing to run for president and had become a client, Greenfield slipped notes with foreign policy suggestions into the pockets of his suits.
What his death means for New York tailoring
For buyers, his career is a reminder that the name on a jacket label does not always say who made the jacket. Many suits sold under other brands' names were cut and sewn in his Brooklyn factory, and the same workshop made bespoke suits for clients who came to him directly.
His sons, who worked alongside him for more than 35 years, run the business. Greenfield is survived by his wife, Arlene, whom he married in 1956, two sons and four grandchildren. He told his life story in a memoir published in 2014.
For readers who want to commission a suit in the city, our guide to bespoke tailoring in New York explains how custom work there is priced and made.
