ROME, April 9 -- There has already been much speculation about what kind of man will soon be elected successor to Pope John Paul II: Will he be a charmer? An intellectual? An African, European or Latin American? A tight-fisted disciplinarian or a convivial democrat?
But no one talks about his size, and that poses a problem for Filippo Gammarelli, proprietor of Gammarelli Ecclesiastical Tailoring, founded in 1798. The shop has provided ecclesiastical and ceremonial garments for popes for more than 150 years.
A.Gammarelli, a tailor, holds the zucchetto, or white silk skullcap, that late Pope John Paul II never had the opportunity to wear.
(Plinio Lepri -- AP)
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When a new pope is elected, a long white outfit with matching skullcap must be immediately available, so he can quickly put them on, leave the Sistine Chapel and greet the crowd waiting for him in St. Peter's Square.
Gammarelli and his team of 20 tailors make three sets in advance: small, medium and large. "We can't be over at the Vatican fitting the new pope at such a time," Gammarelli said.
The clothes will be delivered to the Vatican by the time the electoral conclave begins April 18. Each set will contain two floor-length cassocks, the long robe worn by Catholic clergy, made of about four yards of Italian wool, plus a sash and a mozzetta, the scarlet waist-length garment sometimes placed over the robe. The sets will also include the white zucchetto, or skullcap. "Actually, our white is not white, but ivory," Gammarelli said in a gentle but firm tone familiar to clients of Rome's finer fashion boutiques.
This is a poignant time for Gammarelli. With John Paul's death on April 2, he lost a client of 26 years -- the pope's reign was the third longest in the history of the Catholic Church. When the pope died, Gammarelli cleared his storefront display of hats, shoes, socks and a cassock and set out a zucchetto, which is worn only by popes, atop a red silk piece of cloth.
Inside the shop, with orders for other customers on hold, four tailors are hard at work on the papal sets. "Look at these buttonholes," said Gammarelli, as he held up a cassock. "These are done by hand. We don't have time to waste."
Gammarelli's store is a reminder that Rome was once a papal domain full of artisans who served the pope, his cardinals and the aristocracy from which the Roman Catholic Church recruited its elite. The store sits just off Via dei Cestari, a 75-yard Fifth Avenue of clerical garb and religious paraphernalia. If a chalice, crucifix for an altar, or even a whole altar is needed, Via dei Cestari has them.
Gammarelli said that before 1870, when popes ruled much of central Italy, clothing for cardinals and bishops was much more ornate -- lots of silks and gold brocade. Then Italian nationalists, on the way to unifying the peninsula, drove Pope Pius IX into Vatican City. The outfits became more subdued in protest and out of dismay.
Certificates signed by John Paul II, John XXIII and Paul VI declare Gammarelli a purveyor of vestments to the pope. Customers inspect fabric and finished products on a long table in the wood-paneled store. In a back office, a leather-bound book of designs sits encased in a glass cabinet. "These are our trade secrets," Gammarelli said.
The store has outfitted every pope of the past century except Pius XII, who reigned from 1939 to 1958. Pius had a private tailor.
During his years as pope, John Paul ordered one or two outfits a year. He preferred lightweight outfits because of the Roman heat. "I think it was because he was Polish," Gammarelli said. "He was easy to please."
Once popes are named, they stop coming by for fittings, Gammarelli said. The store keeps their measurements and the tailors make Vatican palace calls for final fittings. "As you might imagine, cardinals might come to us. But we go to the pope," he said.
