Sawt Falasteen - Cassocks competition: whose outfit will new pope wear?

The Gammarelli tailors traditionally prepares three outfits -- short, medium and tall -- to fit new pontiffs whatever their size but say this time the Vatican has asked them not to.

With just hours to go before cardinals are locked into the Sistine Chapel to elect Pope Francis's successor, rival tailor Raniero Mancinelli is taking the chance to offer his own set.

"I have to deliver them today or tomorrow... They have to be ready before the conclave so they can be used if needed," 86-year-old Mancinelli told AFP on Monday.

Mancinelli has made clothes for several popes in the past but has never had the honour of making the first outfit, worn when the pope addresses the public from the balcony of St Peter's Basilica.

He is hand-making the lightweight wool cassocks, sashes and white zucchettos -- or skullcaps -- to be delivered to the Vatican ahead of the conclave, which starts on Wednesday.

Mancinelli is also making three sizes to fit all sorts of pope.

But his are "small, medium or large", to fit different girths rather than heights, as the length will not be visible when the pontiff first appears.

Lorenzo Gammarelli told AFP last week his family-run tailors had been readying to make the three virgin cassocks, as per tradition, but was "told by the Vatican that they have taken care of it".

He said he assumed the vestments for the new pope would "be those of the previous conclaves, because each time we made three robes and they used only one".

But Mancinelli, who has been a tailor for 70 years in his historic shop on the Borgo Pio, a stone's throw from the Vatican, hopes otherwise.

- An offering -

Although the Vatican has not requested he make the cassocks, he has the necessary skills, having worked under seven popes.

"I am making them and offering them to the Vatican in case they can be used by the new pope," he said.

"If they use my things I will be very happy," he added.

The ecclesiastical tailor, who dresses Roman Catholic bishops, priests and seminarians as well as popes, is rushed off his feet with last minute requests ahead of the conclave.

"There are cardinals that need a sash, a zucchetto, a collar... I take care of it," Mancinelli said.

Originally from the Marche region in central Italy, he fell into the profession by chance after being offered the job one day of making cassocks for the Vatican.

The workshop is lined with photographs of Mancinelli and popes. He personally made cassocks for the last three, including Francis.

Clerics from all over the world drop in on him during their visits to Rome.

Some have become friends. Others have climbed the ranks of the Catholic hierarchy.

Francis's election was a surprise -- an outsider from Latin America who had not appeared in the lists of frontrunners ahead of his election in 2013.

Mancinelli said the Argentine had not been one of his regulars, although he may have popped into the shop at some point.

"With so many priests, bishops and cardinals coming and going, it's hard to remember them all," he said.

W.AbuLaban--SF-PST