US President Barack Obama with tailor Georges De Paris at the White House in Washington, DC.

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, died Sunday. He was 81.

De Paris died in a hospice in Arlington, Virginia near the US capital after a long illness, a friend of his, Dimasito Pereira, told AFP.

Another friend, Alain Trampoglieri, told AFP from France that de Paris had been diagnosed with a brain tumor 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 AFP.

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 $4,000.

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.