Holy threads!
Papal wardrobe preferences and sacred bling on display in ‘The Two Popes’
‘THE Two Popes” movie may be about two old white dudes, but its costumes are as splashy as J.Lo’s furs in “Hustlers.”
The film — now in theaters and on Netflix Dec. 20 — was inspired by real life and features Anthony Hopkins as the flashy Pope Benedict XVI and Jonathan Pryce as his shabby-chic successor, Pope Francis. Throughout the movie, the dueling holy men argue about the role of the Catholic Church, homosexuality and politics — but their clothes do a lot of the talking.
Benedict radiates luxury in red silk, lace and emeralds, while Francis shuffles about in scuffed black Oxfords.
“I tried to be as faithful as possible to reality,” Luca Canfora, the movie’s costume designer, tells The Post in Italian via e-mail. “The two popes have very different styles . . . and their [clothes] highlight their distinct personalities and philosophies.”
While the standard papal uniform coalesced around the year 1000, each pope has tweaked the formula, according to fashion historian Daniel James Cole.
The piling on or pulling back on the papal bling “is emblematic of the personal choices of the pope,” says Cole, co-author of “The History of Modern Fashion,” who is working on a book about religious garb. “It’s a combination of individual tastes and the politics of the time.”
In the early days of Christianity, there was no formal church, and those who followed the teachings of the prophet Jesus wore simple, undyed clothes. Clerics wore what everyone else wore.
Later, as Christianity became a more organized religion, the clergy began using colors to distinguish among different orders (priests, monks, cardinals). By about A.D. 1000, the pope’s uniform evolved into the standard white cassock and miniature cape (called a mozzetta) we see today.
The ostentatious gold cloaks, jeweled crosses and ermine-trimmed velvet capelets emerged in the late Middle Ages. And in the 1300s, Benedict XI introduced a triple crown to the pope’s costume.
“Once that kind of opulence got there, it just kind of stayed there,” says Cole.
Even in the 1940s, during World War II, the pope — Pius XII — wore gold-embroidered cloaks and sparkling headgear.
“Pius XII was very much in tune with the spectacle of fascist Italy,” says Cole. “You see him in photographs where he’s wearing the papal tiara or he’s wearing some big fabulous coat or cloak.”
In 1964, Pope Paul VI, known for his reserved personality, retired the triple-tiered tiara.
“He considered the papal tiara with all its jewel encrustation as perhaps sending a bad message if the pope was supposed to be concerned with poverty,” says Cole.
Pope John Paul II further advanced the image of the pontiff by favoring more modern touches, like white Doc Martens. He even took to carrying a briefcase.
“It’s a very useful expression of modernity,” Cole says of the accessory. “Like, of course the pope is gonna need a briefcase!”
Benedict XVI, known as a hard-line traditionalist, sought to restore some old glamour of the church: the fur trims, the rich velvet, the red shoes. “He would sometimes use precious vestments worn by popes from the past centuries,” says Canfora, who also did the costumes for HBO’s “The Young Pope.”
When Francis assumed the papacy in 2013, at age 76, much was made of his sober style. The Catholic Web site Crux dubbed his linen cassocks, unadorned shawls and simple wooden crosses “papal athleisure.” One Vatican tailor even opined that his clothes were “maybe too plain,” particularly after the sartorial splendor of Benedict XVI.
But if Francis doesn’t look as fabulous as Benedict, who was 85 when he retired, he has displayed a sartorial savvy that eluded his predecessor.
“Francis is being a pope for the modern world,” says Cole. And that world is more democratic, more down-to-earth and more open.
“The fact that he wears the black shoes instead of red shoes is a microcosm of that,” Cole adds. “It’s only shoes, but it kind of does sum up a lot.”
Ben Hartsock wasn’t convinced, and he wasn’t alone.
The former Ohio State star and Jets tight end watched with concern as the coaching transition from Urban Meyer to Ryan Day took place in Columbus. Hartsock, who won a national championship with the Buckeyes in 2002, was worried that Ohio State was trying to force Day into becoming a Meyer clone.
“I thought the university was saying, ‘All right Buckeye Nation, everything is going to be the same. It’s coach Meyer’s system, we are just going to have coach Day operating it,’ ” said Hartsock, now a host on Sirius XM’s Big Ten Radio channel.
“I felt like that kind of hamstrung Ryan Day because he couldn’t be his own man and Urban Meyer was going to stay in the building and have his own office.”
Meyer left the program after last season amid health concerns, but he wasn’t going far. He was named an assistant athletics director and is the centerpiece of Fox’s new pregame show, which has aired before several Ohio State games and will do so again on Saturday before the showdown with Michigan.
Day, who was previously the offensive coordinator, has delivered with an 11-0 start to the season and the top spot in the College Football Playoff rankings. Hartsock noted how Day weathered the “baptism by fire” start to his tenure by deftly handling the Justin Fields transfer from Georgia and putting his more laid-back stamp on the program.
“Urban Meyer lived every down like it was fourth down,” Hartsock said. “Day wants his office to be like a living room, everyone is welcome. Urban was well known to have everyone uncomfortable, in competition, every second is going to be the last second we have. He had a lot of success with that but Ryan Day has taken a different approach.”
And it has put Ohio State in position to win a national title. That is not what Saturday afternoon is about, though. Ohio State could lose to Michigan and still be a given for a playoff spot with a win in the Big Ten title game over Wisconsin or Minnesota. This is about keeping Michigan down.
Ohio State has won four 14 of the past 15 matchups in the legendary rivalry, with Michigan’s last win coming in 2011, a year before Meyer arrived.
“Michigan is living in a state of doubt that has been around now for over a decade,” said Hartsock, who will nervously be tracking the game as he calls South Carolina against Clemson on ESPN Radio.
“I was part of an Ohio State program at the end of the John Cooper era that lived with that same doubt. Cooper was 2-10-1 against Michigan, so I know what it was like to be a in a locker room that was talented, trying hard, running appropriate schemes, but there was an element of doubt in that Michigan game. … If Michigan wins, they’ve changed the trajectory in a series that has been so lopsided.”
Jim Harbaugh would love nothing more. The Wolverines coach has successfully turned the program around in his five seasons, but has a scrutinized lack of success against the Buckeyes. Harbaugh’s job was starting to be questioned when a season that began with high expectations — including being preseason favorites to win the Big Ten — started with disappointment. A nail-biting win against Army was followed by a crushing 35-14 loss to Wisconsin.
But Hartsock has seen a different Michigan team since a second-half rally fell just short against Penn State in mid-October.
“His personality is good for college football. The story, the narrative, he’s quirky. He’s had a lot of success,” Hartsock said. “It’s simply, he hasn’t gotten past Ohio State and to the true grown-up’s table of college sports.
“But he has multiple 10-win seasons, has put guys in the NFL and seems to be running a clean program. I want the rivalry to matter and I think Jim Harbaugh is the right guy. … He’s one of those guys who is so eccentric that anything he does people really take him to task on it.”