the Pope does NOT wear Prada

As reported (see below) in today’s Guardian, the official Vatican newspaper has scotched the wicked, frivolous rumour that the Pope shops at Prada. In doing so it declared that, ‘The Pope is not dressed by Prada but by Christ’!

This rather frivolously gave me the image of the Pope wandering around attired in a wooden box given that our Lord was a carpenter.

Nevertheless the newspaper’s image of the Pope as a ‘simple and sober’ man is rather undone by the subsequent report in Corriere della Sera that the much admired scarlet footwear were, in fact, hand crafted by an Italian shoemaker and that the Pope possesses three pairs including a ‘nappa leather pair for hot Rome summers’!

This reminds me of Tolstoy’s peasant frocks – hand tailored in Moscow from the finest linen!

Both interesting definitions of simplicity and sobriety! But what interests me most is why we cannot allow the Pope to be human with a streak of fondness for fine footwear and the sheer pomposity of the denial.

Here is the text of The Guardian article:

“The devil may wear Prada, but following months of speculation the Vatican has put paid to the idea that the Pope is also a fan of the top-end Italian designer.

Benedict XVI’s reputation as an bookish theologian with austere tastes took a knock shortly after his election when pictures of him wearing a pair of simple but elegant red slip-on shoes fuelled speculation among Vatican-watchers that the pontiff was hiding a penchant for high fashion.

In recent months Benedict has fanned the flames by donning sunglasses that would not look out of place on Keanu Reeves and stepping out in an array of eye-catching headwear, including a red velvet cap with white ermine trim and a red panama hat.

But a strongly worded article in the Vatican daily L’Osservatore Romano has struck back at the gossip, calling Benedict a “simple and sober man” who does not – regardless of the sleek appearance of his shoes – shop at Prada.

Italian daily Corriere della Sera confirmed that Benedict’s scarlet footwear was in fact made by Italian shoemaker Adriano Stefanelli, who has also supplied calfskin versions for winter wear and a nappa leather pair for hot Rome summers.

As for his hats, Benedict is simply staying true to his traditionalist take on the papacy by wearing clothes used by past popes, wrote the Vatican daily. “The Pope is not dressed by Prada but by Christ,” it stated, adding that anyone insisting he is a fashion clotheshorse is indulging “in a frivolousness which is extremely characteristic of an epoch which renders banal everything it doesn’t understand”.