Robes first, title later

Cardinals will start choosing a new Pope next week, but John Paul’s successor will be sewn up before the secret conclave opens.In a cob...

Cardinals will start choosing a new Pope next week, but John Paul’s successor will be sewn up before the secret conclave opens.

In a cobblestoned street behind Rome’s Pantheon, tailor Filippo Gammarelli is adding the final stitches to an item that Monday’s meeting will not start without—the white vestments the new Pope will wear when he first appears to the world.

Because Gammarelli has no clue who that Pope will be, he is making three versions of the silk and wool outfit, to clothe the most lean or corpulent cardinal. ‘‘We deliver the three sets to the Vatican before the conclave and that is the last we hear about it till the new Pope appears on the balcony of St Peter’s,’’ Gammarelli, the fifth-generation of this tailoring family, said.

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‘‘The nuns make temporary alterations but we go back the day after to fit the vestments properly.’’

Since its founding in 1798, the tiny shop, piled high with Damask silk bolts, has restricted its services to the highest echelons of the Roman Catholic Church. —Reuters

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