Benedict XVI, the best-dressed pope

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-allen-pope-fashion-20130217,0,7223931.story

The pontiff dressed to reflect the beauty of the faith.


Pope Benedict XVI, sporting a fur-trimmed hat in the rich red color of a Santa hat, waves to pilgrims upon his arrival in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. The red hat with white fur trimming is known in Italian as the "camauro." (Alessandra Tarantino / Associated Press / December 21, 2005)

By Charlotte Allen
February 17, 2013

I'm a Catholic, but I'll admit it (or should I say "confess" it?): When Pope Benedict XVI announced his pending resignation, my first thought wasn't religious. It was in fact downright superficial. "There goes the best-dressed pontiff ever!"

During his nearly eight years on the throne of St. Peter, Benedict has always looked absolutely perfect, sartorially speaking, whether garbed in elaborate vestments for an Easter liturgy or clad in the simple but meticulously tailored white caped cassock (it's called a "simar" in church lingo) that he wears on more ordinary occasions. He's been the Duke of Windsor of popes.

My own fashion sense is nearly nonexistent, but that only makes me more appreciative of Benedict's. Some highlights: Benedict saying Mass in 2008 at Washington's Nationals Park stadium in a billowing scarlet satin chasuble (a priest's outermost liturgical garment) trimmed with crimson velvet and delicate gold piping. Benedict greeting worshipers in Rome, his chasuble this time woven of emerald-green watered silk with a pattern of golden stars. Benedict on Oct. 21 canonizing Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American saint, while attired in a fanon, a gold-and-white striped shoulder covering, dating to the 8th century, that only popes may wear.

Benedict's immediate predecessor, Pope John Paul II, was a saintly figure and a commanding intellectual presence, but he had little interest in clothes, tending to wear whatever was handed to him and shunning elaborate adornments. Pope Paul VI, who reigned from 1963 to 1978, started out dressing fancy, but he gradually simplified his attire, abandoning, for example, the papal tiara, the high triple crown that popes had worn since the early Middle Ages.

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