Italian designer Filippo Sorcinelli has dressed three popes

Italian designer Filippo Sorcinelli, 51, has created liturgical vestments for the last three popes—Benedict XVI, Francis, and now Leo XIV—from his atelier LAVS in Santarcangelo di Romagna. Source: Clarín His latest work, a green and white chasuble worn by Pope Leo XIV during a Mass in Rimini, features gold and silver inlays and green agate stones. Source: El Colombiano

The designer's approach

Sorcinelli, dubbed "modisto de lo sagrado" by Vogue, treats vesting a pope like vesting any priest: "The respect is the same, the parameters are the same." Source: Diario Libre He views liturgical norms not as restrictions but as "guidelines, rules, fixed points," and calls sacred art "a message of revelation absolutely important." Source: Clarín

Faith and craft

His faith, kindled in a small church in Mondolfo, drives his work: "I could never do this job if I didn't believe." Source: El Colombiano Assisted by 11 seamstresses, he chose deep green silk for the Rimini vestment to evoke "hope and safeguarding of creation," with porthole-like ornaments referencing the port. Source: Diario Libre

Personal connection

Sorcinelli once met the then-Augustinian priest Robert Prevost—now Pope Leo XIV—but they have not spoken since. Source: Clarín For papal commissions, he presents designs to the Vatican's Office for Liturgical Celebrations. Source: El Colombiano