Manafort tailor on ostrich coat
‘Epitome of opulence’
The $15,000 ostrich jacket that became the centerpiece of Paul Manafort’s tax- and bank-fraud trial was an uncharacteristic spur-of-themoment purchase by Trump’s former campaign chairman, says the tailor who sold it to him.
“This was during a fitting. It just simply caught his eye,” Manhattan tailor Maximillian Katzman told The Post.
Katzman, 29, who worked in his father’s now-shuttered West 57th Street luxury menswear shop Alan Couture, called Manafort’s regular style a “professional politician look — nothing too bold, nothing too artsy, nothing that could offend someone in a very formal setting.”
He testified at Manafort’s trial earlier this month that the financial criminal splurged on more than $900,000 in merchandise at the shop between 2010 and 2014 — paid for with wired funds from Cypriot banks.
The black ostrich-leather coat with white lining — which the feds used to paint Manafort as a high-living fraudster — was an unusual purchase for Manafort, he noted.
“This is the epitome of, you know, opulence,” Katzman said. “This is as over the top as we could get. That’s the nicest way I could put it.”
The ostentatious outerwear is “some- thing I would never go near,” Katzman sniffed to The Post while adjusting the regimental striped tie he was wearing over a white club-collar dress shirt.
Katzman seemed eager to distance himself from the ostrich-jacket infamy. He recently launched his own tailoring business, Harrison James, to serve a younger clientele that includes Ryan Serhant of Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing.”
But when pressed, he estimated that it took “quite a few skins” to make an ostrich jacket that would fit a stocky customer like Manafort.
“There has to be symmetry over the complete jacket,” Katzman explained. “This individual [Manafort] is not a European 48. He’s built like a real man.”
Still, the coat was not custom. It was a window-display piece meant to highlight the craftsmanship of Alan Couture’s Italian tailors.
“It showcased what we were capable of as far as handiwork, silhouette, the detailing,” Katzman said. “This is something that takes 30 hours to make by human hand.”
He was bemused that it’s become a symbol of extravagance.
“We sell over-the-moon exotic things on a regular basis,” Katzman said, noting that a vicuña-wool suit — made from the underbelly of Peruvian camels — runs $35,000. “I’m surprised to see that this has become a thing.”