Until he arranged an ill-advised NYPD escort for Sean "Diddy" Combs last week, John Mahdessian, 45, was best known as one of the top dry cleaners in New York City, serving everyone from Steven Spielberg to Madonna to fashion editors at Vogue.
When 80 gowns belonging to the late Princess Diana were auctioned off for charity, Mahdessian's Upper East Side company, Madame Paulette, cleaned them.
When Melania Trump married The Donald in a $250,000 dress by John Galliano, Mahdessian was there, in case of emergency. His services have been endorsed by such magazines as New York, Lucky, InStyle, and the Robb Report newsletter.
He is known, in elite Manhattan circles, as the guy who knows just about everyone and can get anything done.
"You want an elephant at 1 in the morning?" says one longtime friend, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "He knows who to call."
"He gets done what you need to get done," said celebrity stylist Robert Verdi. "He's always advancing his services. But I don't know that I'd call him for a motorcade."
Mahdessian belongs to a unique sub-strain of Manhattan society -- think Jacob the Jeweler -- who seek to become power players by serving actual power players. He is, in his way, a member of an elite group, running one of just four white-glove dry-cleaning services in New York. The others -- Jeeves of London, Meurice Garment Care and Hallak Cleaners -- pride themselves on discretion.
Mahdessian does not. In a 2009 profile in the New York Observer, he recounted a weekend on the town, namedropping designer Angel Sanchez, football great Tiki Barber and Broadway producer Israel Wolfson.
"Everywhere I go," he said at the time, "I usually know someone." He boasted of restoring Eva Longoria's wedding dress, Joe DiMaggio's jersey, accommodating "some prince from wherever and his girlfriend in the middle of the night."
"If you're a celebrity, whatever you've told him reaches 25 people with six minutes," said Eddie Bustamante, Mahdessian's former personal assistant.
Mahdessian was raised in Little Neck, Queens, the eldest of three and the son of Armenian immigrants. His father, Noubar, owned and operated Madame Paulette -- still at its original location at Second Avenue and 65th Street on the East Side -- for more than 30 years.
Then John took over, and showed ingenuity in expanding the business: Madame Paulette will send professionals to clean anything from furniture to a private plane, and is available 24/7.
"Being his assistant is really tough," says Bustamante. "Sometimes he'll stroll in at 2 in the afternoon, then stay till 1 a.m. -- that's when you get all these drag queens and thugs and wannabes showing up. A lot of these people have been in jail."
In a piece about luxury services in W magazine's October 2005 issue, Bridget Foley wrote of her experiences with Madame Paulette, including clothes she'd stored with them a decade prior that she said went missing.
Mahdessian's services, it seems, come with added bonuses -- like a quick way out of New York traffic. Although his actions last week made waves within the NYPD, the Diddy incident only burnishes his reputation as a guy who knows everyone.
"Of all the people in your speed-dial, why would you think that that guy could get a police escort for you?" said an astonished celebrity stylist who has worked with Mahdessian. "I've always gotten the feeling that John wants to be in the motorcade. He doesn't want to get one."
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