Aside from the bright red serge uniform of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, there is perhaps no other official ensemble as instantly recognizable as that of the Swiss Guard, the elite cadre that has protected the pope for more than five centuries.
A striking combination of bold colors and Renaissance-inspired design. The signature blue, red and mustard yellow stripes create a vibrant contrast. From the uniform’s high-necked doublet and fitted jacket to its puffed sleeves and wide trousers, everything is tailored with precision.
For almost three decades, the Swiss Guard’s uniforms have been made down to the smallest detail by Ety Cicioni, 52, the Vatican’s chief tailor.
These carefully crafted uniforms will be on full display as more than 32 million pilgrims are expected to flock to Rome for the Vatican’s 2025 anniversary celebrations. During this time, plenary indulgences are granted – spiritual pardons that faithful Catholics believe free them from temporal punishment for sins – with the pope, flanked by the Swiss Guard, presiding over dozens of ceremonies and celebrations.
“We have hardly made a change to the uniform in more than a century,” Cicioni said from his modest tailoring studio in the Vatican, hidden behind the main Porta Sant’Anna entrance to Vatican City, where the Swiss Guard stands at attention. “The challenge was to maintain the uniform,” as certain materials, fabrics and sewing techniques were outdated.
“You have to draw each piece precisely and optimize the cutting to reduce waste,” Cicioni said.
Tailor-made for the guards – and the stars
Wearing a crisp, tailored suit, Cicioni glides through the studio with a graceful economy of movement – past spools of colorful yarn on wall shelves and under high rods where half-finished jackets hang like festive streamers.
Framed photos of the tailor, his wife and two children with Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI. and Francis testify to his work as a tailor in the Vatican for more than a quarter of a century. This is the second time that Cicioni has acted as tailor in the anniversary year, which takes place every 25 years.
Every year, Cicioni and seven other tailors in the shop make 120 uniforms: 60 for winter, 60 for summer. Both are made from high-quality wool from Biella, a town in the northern Piedmont region known for producing the best wool textiles in the world.
Each uniform consists of 154 pieces of fabric, some of which are sewn together by hand.
Cicioni estimates that his studio produced more than 3,000 Swiss Guard uniforms. Groups of about a dozen new guards arrive three times a year: January, June and September. Candidates must be Catholic, unmarried Swiss men between the ages of 19 and 30, be at least 174 cm tall and have completed military training in Switzerland.
The current version of the uniform dates to 1914, when Swiss Guard commander Jules Repond studied paintings of early 16th-century ceremonial and military clothing, drawing on the styles of the Medici and Della Rovere families who ruled Rome , and a uniform designed to incorporate key elements.
The winter uniform weighs over three kilograms, while the lighter summer version made of wool still contributes to a lot of sweating in Rome’s sultry summers. To protect the cape’s seams from sweat erosion, a minor problem, Cicioni added lining – his only significant change.
But Cicioni didn’t just design uniforms for the Vatican: he also lent his expertise to the film industry for papal-themed films: The young pope And The new Pope TV series, both directed by Paolo Sorrentino; The two popes by Francesco Meirelles; And The Pope’s Exorcist by Julius Avery.
“The only thing I didn’t do was that conclave” he said, adding with a laugh, “I hope to see it soon and will be watching the costumes very closely.”
The job was offered without a trial
Although he has sewn for the Holy See for years, Cicioni says he never imagined running the Vatican’s fashion office.
Hailing from a small coastal town on the Adriatic coast in the Abruzzo region, Cicioni grew up with a mother who ran a dry cleaner and did small tailoring repairs. Since the craft runs in the family – his three sisters are seamstresses – he worked for one Haute Couture Atelier, which was later taken over by Gucci.
In the fall of 1997, a local man who worked for the Vatican asked him if he would be interested in interviewing to replace the Vatican’s chief tailor, who was retiring.
“When I got here, they were still using old-fashioned foot pedal sewing machines,” Cicioni said. “I thanked him for the opportunity, but said I worked in another field and it would be impossible to do my job with such antiques.”
A month and a half later, he received a call from the Vatican asking what equipment he needed for the work. He faxed them a list and half an hour later they called him to offer him the job, no trial required.
“I still don’t know why I was chosen,” said the devout Catholic. “I can only believe there was a higher power involved.”
Cicioni’s wife, Lucia Marcellosi, accompanied him in the studio after their wedding, a few years after he started working at the Vatican. She now works with Cicioni, cutting and sewing new uniforms for the new Swiss Guard recruits due to arrive in the new year.
Black market uniforms
The Vatican guards the uniforms carefully, prohibiting their resale and allowing Swiss guardsmen to keep them only after five years of service. Even then, the guards have to sign a contract guaranteeing that when they die they will either be buried in the uniform or donate it to a Swiss association of former Swiss Guardsmen.
“They discovered the children or grandchildren of the Swiss Guard trying to sell the uniforms on eBay,” Cicioni said. “So the Vatican bought back the uniforms and implemented the rule.”
Old uniforms that cannot be recycled are cut into small pieces, often abandoned by the Swiss Guard as punishment for being late for duty.
Cicioni believes the Swiss Guard uniform will endure well into the future, but fears the patience required to train and nurture young talent in high-level tailoring is largely a thing of the past.
“When we hire a new person, it can take years to understand whether they have what it takes,” he said. “And if not, it’s a huge loss of time and energy. But you have to take the risk if you want this ship to survive.”
His real dream, he says, is to open a tailoring school and pass on to future generations the skills, secrets and satisfaction that have shaped his life and that of his family.
