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Tailor Partners with Bag Maker for Line Targeting Traveling Businessmen

By Meredith Hoffman | January 28, 2013 7:01am

EAST WILLIAMSBURG — A prestigious tailor that has fitted U.S. presidents and the stars of "Boardwalk Empire" is now streamlining the packing process for stylish businessmen.

Martin Greenfield, a suit workshop on Varet Street that has been around for 36 years, has just partnered with the designer leather bag company Ghurka to create "The Traveller" — a Ghurka suitcase filled with a custom-fitted wrinkle-resistant suit, plus extra shirts, pants, ties, shoes and a belt.

"A businessman doesn't have time to pick out his wardrobe," said Will Brennan, a Martin Greenfield tailor and the company's assistant to the director of private collections, "so we do it for him."

Martin Greenfield — whose 85-year-old namesake owner is renowned for his grassroots rise to success — would send staff to clients' offices and homes for fittings or would welcome them into the workshop, Brennan said.

The package includes one wool suit, three dress shirts, three trousers, three ties, a pair of Allen Edmond leather shoes and a matching belt in a twill, and leather Ghurka bag — all for $6,500, a Ghurka representative said.

The retail value of such a package is $8,750, the rep said.

"It makes me really jealous," laughed Brennan of men who can afford the combo.

Brennan noted that Martin Greenfield also sells wholesale products for Neiman Marcus and Brooks Brothers, makes "all Park Avenue's swanky doorman's uniforms," and has just finished the costumes for Season 4 of Boardwalk Empire. The company's owner has also fitted suits for President Dwight Eisenhower and other national leaders, he added.

"We're makers of luxury goods for travel and business, and they're a premiere men's made-to-measure tailor. There seemed to be a lot of synergy there," said Pam Bristow, Ghurka's vice-president of communications. "We both make our products in America and have a strong focus on craftsmanship."

And Greenfield, who came to New York after surviving the Holocaust as a young child, said his pride is so strong in his business that he still comes to work six days a week to oversee operations. After starting work with an entry-level job at the former GGG Clothes, Greenfield eventually bought the East Williamsburg business and renamed it in 1977, staffers said.

"I manufacture the best clothing in the world. I train my own people," boasted Greenfield in the shop a few blocks from the Morgan Avenue L stop, now on a popular strip with the New York Loft Hostel, Green Fitness Studio and cafes. "I created this area."