'Master Tailors' Spent Weeks Preparing Pope Francis' Robe
The new Pope Francis walked out onto the Vatican balcony wearing the "traditional garments of a floor-length white wool cassock, a white sash, and a white skullcap," according to a New York Times article.
The outfit was prepared by Gammarelli, the tailoring company that has dressed the Pope since the 1700s. The company got to work after Pope Benedict announced his resignation.
"The master cutters and tailors have gone about making three sets of papal garments, in sizes small, medium and large....none of the likely current candidates, as it happens, is any heftier than that," writes Guy Trebay at the Times. "Pope John XXIII, who died in 1963, was the last pontiff to wear an XL."
Pope Francis chose not to wear the scarlet mozzetta, which Pope Benedict wore at his anointing.
The new Pope has already proved himself to be less fashionable than Pope Benedict. Kenzie Bryant at Racked, a fashion blog, commented on his "transition-lensed, rounded glasses."