The pope’s personal style, which earned him Esquire magazine’s ‘Best Dressed Man of 2013’ award - and his broader message of sobriety will be put to the test on Saturday when he inducts 19 prelates into the College of Cardinals, placing the three-cornered red silk biretta on the heads of the new ‘princes of the church.’
For the festive occasion, cardinals are traditionally outfitted in scarlet from head to toe, from the silk skull cap to bright red socks, with a white lace embroidered surplice known as a rochet worn over the red cassock and underneath the mozzetta, or shoulder cape. But with the ‘slum pope’ now calling the sartorial shots, fashionistas and Vaticanistas are wondering how his new cardinals - who hail from some of the poorest places on Earth, including Haiti, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast - will dress themselves for their new role.
‘What will make the difference at the consistory is how the cardinals interpret this traditional outfit,’ said Raniero Mancinelli who has dressed cardinals and even popes since the early 1960’s from his tiny shop right outside the Vatican walls.
Will they splurge for the fancy, optional red silk cape favored by some first-world cardinals? Or will they go the route of the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who according to clerical legend wore an altered hand-me-down cassock inherited from his predecessor for his 2001 consistory?
‘The cardinals and priests are much more careful of shining and spend less on their clothes,’ Mancinelli said.
For the festive occasion, cardinals are traditionally outfitted in scarlet from head to toe, from the silk skull cap to bright red socks, with a white lace embroidered surplice known as a rochet worn over the red cassock and underneath the mozzetta, or shoulder cape. But with the ‘slum pope’ now calling the sartorial shots, fashionistas and Vaticanistas are wondering how his new cardinals - who hail from some of the poorest places on Earth, including Haiti, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast - will dress themselves for their new role.
‘What will make the difference at the consistory is how the cardinals interpret this traditional outfit,’ said Raniero Mancinelli who has dressed cardinals and even popes since the early 1960’s from his tiny shop right outside the Vatican walls.
Will they splurge for the fancy, optional red silk cape favored by some first-world cardinals? Or will they go the route of the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who according to clerical legend wore an altered hand-me-down cassock inherited from his predecessor for his 2001 consistory?
‘The cardinals and priests are much more careful of shining and spend less on their clothes,’ Mancinelli said.