Tailor has clothes ready for new pope

on 04/03/2013 13:07:07

Even before Cardinals met in the Sistine Chapel yet to elect the new pope the family-owned Gammarelli tailor shop that has dressed popes for two centuries was ready.

It displayed three sets of white vestments - small, medium and large - to be sent to the Vatican for the new pope.

A white silk "zucchetto," or skullcap, lay on a bed of red cloth in the window, as did a white sash with golden fringes and a pair of red leather shoes.

Gammarelli, tucked behind the Pantheon in central Rome, has served scores of cardinals and popes since 1798.

Pope Pius XII was an exception: he used his family tailor.