About Martin

My great-grandfather, Maurice Labor, and his wife emigrated from the Russia/Poland region to Liverpool in 1905, intending to travel to America but settling there after being misled by ship personnel. To support the family, he sold buttons collected from tailor shop floors. Their daughter, Hannah, became a dressmaker and moved to Birmingham, where she married Harry Witton, a tailor for the Co-Op.

My mother, Cynthia, loved fashion, and she married my father, who was from Dungiven, Northern Ireland. His mother, Mary Coyle (née McCloskey), ran a haberdashery shop next to my grandfathers pub, Coyle's Bar. Following these family roots, I began my career at 16 with M & J Shapiro Ltd, a haberdashery wholesaler in Birmingham, finding joy in the intricate details of threads and colors.

I have maintained a lifelong connection to haberdashery, and while I don't need to pick buttons off the floor like my great-grandfather, I am proud of my collection. Go take a peek, you’ll be glad that you did.

Harry Wittenberg, my grandfather facing the camera

Martin