Expectations are not only heating up in the Vatican this week about who will be the new pope but also regarding who will dress him after white smoke finally emits from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel.
Raniero Mancinelli, 86, has personally handcrafted cassocks for three popes at his now famed shop, Mancinelli Clero, located close to the Vatican in Rome, since 1962, <a href="https://www.thetimes.com/article/d1734bb2-629c-48fd-84a3-cc6aab9412c6"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">reports</mark></a> <em>The Times.</em>
Though the veteran tailor has dressed three popes during their reigns, he has yet to supply the cassock and cape worn by a new pope when he steps on to the balcony at St Peter’s Basilica after his election.
He is one of the last remaining ecclesiastical tailors in all of Rome and during the course of six decades has crafted handmade liturgical vestments worn by popes, cardinals, bishops and priests around the world. Now he awaits to see if any of his cassocks will be chosen by the next pontiff.
He said he was in the running after good reviews from John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis, who all wore Mancinelli’s garments after they were elected. But he will only know if his vestments have been picked when he sees the new pope waving from the balcony to the crowds gathered in St Peter's Square.
He was cutting three capes on Wednesday, 30 April, that he will supply for the moment the new pope enters the small antechamber at the Vatican called the Room of Tears.
“I am doing a small, medium and large,” he said. “And I hope he will pick mine.”
Francis declined to wear the red cape – or mozzetta – he was offered before he stepped onto the balcony in 2013.
Mancinelli's dressing of popes offers an intriguing and even intimate insight into their ways of thinkings along with the challenges they faced as the papacy – and inevitable aging involved – took its toll.
“Francis wanted simple, practical and cheap clothes,” says Mancinelli, who had to resupply the Argentinian pontiff as he put on weight as a result of health issues and deteriorating mobility.
As Benedict began to stoop in old age, Mancinelli started to shorten his cassocks.
“Pope Benedict dressed more elegantly,” Mancinelli said. “He wanted more expensive and heavier cloth because he suffered [with] the cold, as well as perfectly fitting cassocks.”
Mancinelli still uses an old 6kg iron to get the wrinkles out of cassocks in a tiny workroom. The shop's shelves are packed with ornate sashes, purple socks and €60 mitres, alongside racks of silver-plated croziers that cost €1,600.
As the 7 May conclave approaches, reports of <a href="https://thecatholicherald.com/stories-of-intrigue-and-secret-plots-gather-pace-as-conclave-approaches/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">intrigue and jockeying for position are gathering pace</mark></a>. There are also indications that this conclave, unlike the previous two that each lasted a relatively brief two days, could prove a far longer and harder affair to settle.
Mancinelli may well have to wait longer than he is used to during a conclave, in order to find out if any of his expertly crafted vestments have been chosen.
<a href="https://thecatholicherald.com/this-conclave-looks-set-to-be-a-long-hard-fight/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color"><strong><em>RELATED: Could this be the longest conclave in modern history?</em></strong></mark></a>
<em>Photo: Italian ecclesiastical tailor Raniero Mancinelli stands for a portrait in his famed shop Mancinelli Clero, located close to the Vatican, Rome, Italy, 29 April 2025. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images.)</em>
