Famous Brooklyn tailor makes and donates masks to front-line workers

A Brooklyn tailor known for creating custom suits for celebrities is now making stylish masks for the front-line stars of the pandemic.

News 12 Staff

May 14, 2020, 12:07 PM

Updated 1,452 days ago

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A Brooklyn tailor known for creating custom suits for celebrities is now making stylish masks for the front-line stars of the pandemic.
Todd Greenfield says his Brooklyn-based factory was shut down due to COVID-19, but he says it didn’t seem right to have everything stop.
“When we got shut down for making suits I was walking around the factory and it just didn't seem right to have it all quiet and stopped," says Todd Greenfield, of Martin Greenfield Clothiers.
Sewing machines in the Martin Greenfield factory in East Williamsburg are buzzing again, making fashionable yet practical masks.
"We wanted to do something to help but, you know, I didn't realize it would have such a big impact,” say Greenfield.
They first started making masks with the unused suit materials in the factory and donated them. Wanting to make more, they started a GoFundMe to bring back 30% of their employees and to buy more material to keep their production going and their business alive.
"We are a family of survivors, my father survived the Holocaust. Any type of an obstacle that comes up we look to see how we can live through it, not how it's going to kill us,” says Greenfield.
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The masks come in six packs and for every pack sold, a pack is donated to health care workers, grocery store employees and other essential workers. Greenfield thinks the masks will become a staple part of the wardrobe.
"We anticipate masks being something people are going to get comfortable wearing and want to wear when they're out in public,” say Greenfield.
They say their next step may be matching custom suits with custom masks for weddings and other events.


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