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Georges de Paris
1934-2015
Georges de Paris, a French tailor who came to America and ended up broke and homeless before resurrecting his career to make suits for presidents from Lyndon Johnson to Barack Obama, has died at the age of 81.
De Paris died Sunday in a hospice in Arlington, Virginia near the US capital after a long illness, friend Dimasito Pereira said.
Another friend, Alain Trampoglieri, said from France that de Paris had been diagnosed with a brain tumour two years ago.
But de Paris continued working at his Washington shop up until two months ago, said Pereira.
In his heyday, de Paris worked for Ronald Reagan, among others, who shared with de Paris some of his trademark jelly beans, and with Johnson, who introduced the suit maker to his wife and daughters.
Reagan talked a lot and knew good fabric, de Paris once told Agence France-Presse.

A native of Marseille in southern France, de Paris was a diminutive man with a long, unruly mane of white hair. He had a tailor shop just a few blocks from the White House, and always dressed impeccably.
He learned his trade in France and came to the United States in the late 1950s at the age of 27 with his life savings of US$4,000.
In a photograph taken at the White House last year, de Paris is seen with his arm around a smiling Obama and a tape measure draped around his shoulders.
That is just one of many photos of de Paris posing with US presidents that adorn his shop.
When he first arrived in the United States, de Paris lived with an American girlfriend but the relationship quickly fell apart when he declined to marry her.

She threw him out, and refused to give him back the money he had deposited in her bank account, de Paris said in an interview in 2002.
De Paris then spent six months down and out, speaking very little English as he begged on the streets and slept in a parking lot near the White House.
The seeds of his tailoring business were planted when he was hired as a cutter by a French-Canadian tailor for US$70 a week.
De Paris rented a small room and saved his money until he could buy a sewing machine and strike out on his own.
A satisfied congressman customer introduced him to Johnson, then the vice-president, who continued to enlist the tailor’s services when he became president following the assassination of John F. Kennedy in November 1963.
Of all the presidents he spent hours measuring and fitting under the watchful eyes of Secret Service agents, de Paris preferred Reagan and George W. Bush.
They were the “friendliest and also the most elegant,” he said.
“Reagan spoke a lot. He, like George W., knew how to appreciate the quality of fabrics,” de Paris said. “He gave me jellybeans and was always afraid that I would prick him with my needles during the fitting.”
On the other hand, George H.W. Bush “was not the most agreeable. But the least pleasant of all was Bill Clinton,” de Paris said.
“Clinton was very demanding, cold and always occupied. ... He was unaware of me completely,” de Paris said.
At that time of that interview, in 2002, he was charging US$3,000 dollars or more for his suits.
In the end, he did not want people to know he was sick, said Trampoglieri, a member of the board of Radio France who was friends with the tailor for 20 years.
“During the periods when he could not work, he would go by the shop in the morning and turn on the lights and go back in the evening and turn them off,” he said.


Tailor overcame homelessness to make suits for US presidents, from LBJ to Obama

Georges de Paris, a French immigrant in the United States became a tailor to US presidents. He had worked in his shop near the White House until two months before his death. Photo: AFP

US President Barack Obama with French-born tailor Georges De Paris. Photo: AFP

De Paris with George W. Bush. Photo: AP

Is this one of the world's most expensive suits? It's a snip at HK$1 million

Arshad Mahmood shows off Apsley Tailors' suit. Photo: Thomas Yau

How first lady Peng Liyuan is boosting business for China's bespoke tailors

Mu Yan, founder and chief designer of custom tailor M.Y. Bespoke, sits amid creations at her Shenzhen showroom. Photo: Edward Wong

First lady Peng Liyuan. Photo: AP

The ultimate James Bond suit: Canadian tailor creates bulletproof three-piece

A bulletproof suit made by Canadian tailor Garrison Bespoke is tested on a gun range in Ajax, Ontario, at the launch yesterday. Photo: AP

Customer Michael Lavigne in a bulletproof waistcoat made by Garrison Bespoke. Photo: AP

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