1947
01 / 09
Ervin's parents
His parents, both concentration-camp survivors, lost their family home when it was seized and turned into a hospital. Ervin was drafted into the Junior Communists as a boy.
The Story
The Ervin Rosenfeld Story.
From a Transylvanian flea market to Manhattan's Fur District --- five decades of custom coats, restyled inheritances, and one very consistent handshake.
Timeline · 1951 --- Today
1951
02 / 09
Gherla, Transylvania
Born New Year's Day. His father was one of fourteen children, his mother one of twenty-one, and his paternal family had dealt in furs for generations --- traveling to the Easter auctions in Leipzig for fox, lynx, and broadtail pelts.
December 1964
03 / 09
Rome
The family fled Gherla with three suitcases and landed in a one-room shack. Ervin, thirteen and speaking no Italian, found work at the flea market in Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II --- and within three weeks was paying the man who'd hired him just to let him keep trading on his own. At night, he raided the city's fountains for coins.
1966
04 / 09
JFK Airport
Landed in New York with nothing. Settled in Borough Park, enrolled at New Utrecht High School, and talked his way into a job waiting tables at a deli.
1972
05 / 09
West 29th Street
Married into the fur trade through his father-in-law, Emmanuel Fischer, who ran a fur-manufacturing workshop in the Fur District. Fischer died within months --- Ervin had to master the craft fast, staying up nights teaching himself.
The 1980s
06 / 09
The Fur District
Welcomed every kind of customer through the door at a time other shops on the block quietly didn't --- building a loyal, mixed clientele on reputation and respect alone.
The 1990s & 2000s
07 / 09
Word of Mouth Only
Became one of downtown's most sought-after furriers for one-of-a-kind, made-to-order pieces --- all without ever running an ad or building a website. The fuller story of this era --- including the celebrity clientele --- lives on its own blog post, not here, since Ervin's own rule has always been not to trade on client names.
2006
08 / 09
The New Yorker
Profiled in "Mink Inc." --- proof that fifty years of word-of-mouth reputation can outrun any marketing budget.
Today
09 / 09
224 W 30th Street
Still doing every fitting himself. Same craft, same neighborhood, same welcome to anyone who walks in the door.
Pillar 1 · The journey
Rome to 30th Street.
Ervin started in the trade as a young man selling furs at a flea market in Rome. When he landed in New York in the 1970s, he brought a few suitcases and a working knowledge of skins --- and walked straight into the Fur District on 30th Street, where he's been ever since.
For over fifty years, Ervin has done every job in the shop himself: matching skins, cutting patterns, fitting linings, restyling coats customers inherited from their mothers and grandmothers. If it's fur, he's touched it.
Pillar 2---3 · The everyman's furrier
Everyone walks through the same door.
In 2006, The New Yorker profiled Ervin in a piece called "Mink Inc." The reporter noticed something plenty of Fur District regulars had known for years: Orthodox Jewish women from Borough Park and hip-hop's biggest names walked through the same door and got the same handshake. At a time when other shops on the block quietly turned people away, Ervin didn't.
Pillar 4 · The craft
Skins first. Always.
There is no e-commerce, no discount rack, no catalog. You come in, Ervin pulls skins from the bins, you feel them. If you want a coat, he'll cut it. If you have a coat and it doesn't fit anymore, he'll fix it. If you want it in cold storage for the summer, he'll come pick it up.
That's the whole business. It's been the whole business since the seventies --- and it's why coats cut in 1985 keep coming back for cleaning in 2026.
As featured in The New Yorker, "Mink Inc.," 2006.
Come by the shop.
Ervin will show you the skins first, then talk about the coat. Fittings by appointment; walk-ins welcome when the door is open.