Stocks● Neutral
Vestment designer's faith-driven business faces Vatican concentration risk
Filippo Sorcinelli, who dressed three popes, relies on Vatican commissions for his Atelier LAVS. Diversification into perfumes is limited. A leadership change could slow orders.
Continue with
Filippo Sorcinelli, the Italian tailor who created liturgical garments for three popes, runs a business that hinges on a single client base: the Vatican. His Atelier LAVS has produced vestments for Benedict XVI, Francis, and Pope Leo XIV since the Chicago-born pontiff wore a green-and-white chasuble in Rimini on Saturday.
The 51-year-old designer told AFP that his creative process for a papal chasuble and mitre can take "from the simplicity of a few weeks up to three or four months of work." He submits designs and fabric swatches to the Vatican's Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff. That office, not Sorcinelli, decides which garments the pope wears at which mass.
Sorcinelli has diversified into perfumes and body products sold to the general public. Still, his reputation – and the bulk of his revenue – rests on ecclesiastical commissions. Vogue called him "a couturier of the sacred." He employs 11 seamstresses.