Even before Cardinals meet in the Sistine Chapel to elect the next Pope, the family-owned Gammarelli tailor shop that has dressed popes for two centuries, is ready with the new papal wardrobe.
The shop displayed three sets of white vestments – small, medium and large – to be sent to the Vatican. 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.