A family of tailors in Rome have been dressing popes for more than 200 years.
The Gammarelli family have been providing garments for priests, bishops, cardinals and popes for six generations.
The Gammarelli family has been making and selling clerical vestments since 1798.
This business supplied the traditional papal white soutane to Pope John Paul II for 26 years. Filippo Gammarelli describes the pope as a very good customer. Pope John Paul II had a preference for a light wool soutane, which meant there was almost no difference between the clothes he wore during winter and summer.
Pope John Paul II died on 2 April, and the Gammarelli family are now preparing to dress the next pope. They have already made three sizes of papal garments in preparation for white smoke at the Vatican. Once the new pope is elected, he must be dressed in the white garments within half an hour for the first benediction.
After half an hour, he must be dressed in white.
As the College of Cardinals are locked inside the Sistine Chapel to select the next leader of the Catholic church, the papal tailors are speculating who it might be and trying to anticipate their size.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 19 April 2005. The reporter is Bryan Dobson.
