By Jessamyn Hatcher - The New Yorker - April 12, 2018
"On a recent cloudy afternoon in Rome, two young priests from Ireland, dressed in simple tab collars and black pants, stood with their noses pressed against the display window of Ditta Annibale Gammarelli, purveyors of ecclesiastical clothing and tailors to the Pope since 1798.
Gammarelli, nestled behind the Pantheon, is the oldest and most famous shop in a district that is to Roman Catholic clerical garb what the streets between the Via del Corso and the Spanish Steps are to la moda. In the window hung a sumptuous red-and-gold silk damask chasuble, the outermost vestment a priest wears to Mass; a hat shaped like a Gothic window, worn by bishops and the Pope, called a mitre; and red silk socks for cardinals. There was also a jewelry case of bishops’ rings and a sign that read “Shop Tax Free.” “Do you think they’re made of real gold?” one priest asked, about the rings. “I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves,” the other replied.
Outside the Vatican, a shop stewards the flourishing art of papal couture. Photograph by Alessandra Benedetti / Corbis / Getty
Inside, the store was thronged. Lorenzo Gammarelli, tall, bearded, courteous, was fielding walk-ins as the phone rang off the hook. “It’s been like this for three days. I don’t know why. Last week was extremely simple,” Gammarelli said. He wore a brown tweed blazer, a sweater vest, and a tie the color of purple crocuses. Lorenzo and his cousins Massimiliano and Stefano Paolo are the sixth generation of Gammarellis to run the shop, which has been located on the Via Santa Chiara since 1874, when the cousins’ great-grandfather Annibale—grandson of Giovanni Antonio, the first recorded papal Gammarelli tailor—opened its doors. The Gammarelli showroom is a deep rectangle, fitted with glass counters and shelves in a dark, glossy wood.
Along one wall are small wooden drawers with labels like “red skull caps” and “braided cinctures.” Above the drawers is a row of photographs: Popes dressed by Gammarelli, from Pius IX to Francis. “Our most precious customers,” Lorenzo said. He gestured toward Benedict XVI [who was one 'sharp & snazzy' dressing Pope], who, when he was still Pope, was voted the 2007 “Accessorizer of the Year” by Esquire. This prompted the Vatican’s official daily paper to publish a response: “The Holy Father is not dressed by
Prada, but by Christ.”
It would also be accurate to say that he is dressed by Gammarelli. Before a papal election, the shop displays papal robes in small, medium, and large in their window. The site becomes as closely monitored as the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel. Even before the conclave is convened, the Gammarellis are prepared to dress the Pope-elect for his first public appearance. “We go to the Holy Father,” Lorenzo explained. “Everybody else comes to us.”
Pope Francis, named the best dressed man alive in 2013, by Esquire, is one of the Gammarellis’ patrons. Photograph by Wojtek Laski / Getty
Papal apparel has remained largely unchanged for two thousand years, with even small shifts—John Paul II donning plain loafers, Paul VI consigning the papal tiara to a museum, Benedict reintroducing the mozzetta, an ermine-trimmed red velvet shoulder cape—sparking scandal in the faith. Lately, though, holy couture seems to have gained currency in the culture at large.
In 2013, Pope Francis was named the best dressed man alive by Esquire. In the recent HBO series “The Young Pope,” Lenny Belardo, [played by Jude Law], the suave, chain-smoking American Pontiff, announces himself to the cardinals by wearing ornate regalia from the Middle Ages.
And, beginning in May, the Met will host the biggest fashion show in its history, “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.” The exhibit will pair high-fashion confections with objects from the museum’s medieval Christian collection—papal robes and accessories from the Sistine Chapel sacristy, many of which have never been seen outside the Vatican, will also be on view".
"The shop offers ecclesiastical socks in three colors: black for priests, purple for bishops, and red for cardinals [and of course white for Pontiffs, but Pope Francis prefers black]. Eligio Paoni / Contrasto / Redu
Read More: Where the Pope gets his socks
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