After more than 25 years working as a fashion designer, Filippo Sorcinelli suddenly finds himself in the spotlight for dressing Pope Leo XIV.
The Italian designer has created mitres — the ceremonial pointed hats that are customary with high-ranking Christian clergy — and other vestments for the late Pope Benedict XVI and his successor Pope Francis. A multiskilled artist, he also started an artisanal perfume company in 2013 called UNUM and performs as an organist. Based in the Italian village of Mondolfo, he is a self-described Catholic and openly gay artist, who does not like to speak of contradictions but rather of freedoms.
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Sorcinelli first met the Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV in the small town of Tolentino before he was elected pope. Dressing the pope is different than designing for his atelier LAVS, since it “requires an order that is higher than taste, fashion and personal will,” he said via email. Embroidery, color, form and symbolism are considered in his research. Suggesting that pontifical vestments clothe a man and “manifest ministry,” Sorcinelli said his responsibilities involve a “very precise form of institutional and spiritual respect.”
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Needless to say, there is a good amount of listening and discretion involved. His work is coordinated through the office for the liturgical celebrations of the supreme pontiff. Grateful for the recent international media attention, the designer said that comes with greater responsibility too especially since his name is associated with fashion, fragrance and music.
Sorcinelli said that as an artist, he can relate to Pope Leo’s recent cautionary comments about artificial intelligence. Earlier this month, the pontiff released his first encyclical, entitled “Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.” Interestingly, it was a viral deepfake AI-generated photo of Pope Francis seemingly wearing a giant white puffer coat that prompted discussion and debate about AI in 2023.
Although Sorcinelli did not set out to dress popes, he said he became familiar with the church from a young age by going with his mother to one in Mondolfo that she cleaned. He said he took note of the fabrics, incense, the pipe organ and the silence of the sacristies there.
Like other designers preparing for a major photo-op with a world figure, Sorcinelli isn’t about to reveal what he is designing for Pope Leo XIV’s upcoming trip to Spain in June. With the pontiff set to touch down in Barcelona, Madrid and the Canary Islands, Sorcinelli declined to share any details due to the assignment’s ecclesial and institutional nature.