{"id":598877,"date":"2026-08-28T18:14:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T18:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/598877\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T18:14:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T18:14:24","slug":"infallible-style-pope-leo-appears-in-vanity-fairs-ranks-of-most-fashionable-fashion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/598877\/","title":{"rendered":"Infallible style: Pope Leo appears in Vanity Fair\u2019s ranks of most fashionable | Fashion"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the first time in a decade, Vanity Fair has released a best-dressed list<\/a>. Featuring 70 names, the list ranks the most fashionable people in the world in 2026. The lineup includes the usual suspects spanning Hollywood actors and global pop stars but nestled among the Hollywood stars is an unexpected entrant. Pope Leo XIV.<\/p>\n

The 70-year-old head of the Catholic church has been praised by the magazine for taking papal style \u201cto heavenly heights\u201d. His most memorable look? A simple white cassock styled with a pair of Nike trainers.<\/p>\n

Vanity Fair\u2019s style correspondent Jos\u00e9 Criales-Unzueta, who worked on compiling the list, said he and the team were impressed by the \u201cinnate Americanness\u201d of the way the pope dressed.<\/p>\n

Pope Leo in a pair of Nike trainers. Photograph: Vatican News<\/p>\n

The Chicago-born pontiff has carved out a style niche and garnered a loyal fashion following with his enthusiasm for both bespoke vestments and vintage fashion accessories. Alongside trainers, he prefers simple black oxford shoes to the traditional red papal slippers.<\/p>\n

He wears a discontinued Swiss-made quartz watch, carries his own battered briefcase and in June 2025 popped a White Sox baseball cap over his papal cap for a general audience in St Peter\u2019s Square. For more formal occasions, he turns to the Italian designer Filippo Sorcinelli, who also created liturgical vestments for the previous popes Benedict XVI and Francis.<\/p>\n

The Catholic church, with its long mastery of symbolism and optics, is experiencing an uptick driven by gen Z. For Leo, being featured in a publication that its global editorial director, Mark Guiducci, has described<\/a> as a \u201cmagazine about personalities\u201d and that feels \u201clike the pantheon\u201d works well with the papacy\u2019s own aim to position itself as a modern power.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world\u2019s embrace of this pope has been stunning to me,\u201d said Robert Orsi, a professor of religious studies at Northwestern University in Illinois. Orsi pointed to Leo\u2019s criticism of AI and calls for peace as also speaking to gen Z.<\/p>\n

Carol Richardson, a professor of early modern art history at the University of Edinburgh, said the pope, who has his own Instagram account, would be aware of his inclusion on the list. \u201cHe and the people surrounding him are very savvy,\u201d she said. \u201cThe majority will think it\u2019s fun. They will like the fact it has been noticed how busy he is, that he has to wear trainers to run around in. That he is working.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Christian Lacroix ecclesiastical riffing in the 80s and the Met\u2019s Heavenly Bodies exhibition in 2018 to crucifixes and depictions of Christ<\/a> on the most recent catwalks, the papacy has long fascinated fashion. Criales-Unzueta says its appeal lies in its vastness. \u201cThere is so much to take in and so much to find inspiration in.\u201d<\/p>\n

A model in the Dolce & Gabbana fashion show at Milan fashion week in June. Photograph: WWD\/Getty<\/p>\n

The pontiff is listed in Vanity Fair\u2019s \u201coriginals\u201d division, a category of individuals commended by the magazine for being \u201cthe most outlandish and innovative dressers\u201d with \u201ca singular point of view\u201d. Others on the list include the film-maker Spike Lee and the singers Bj\u00f6rk and Rosal\u00eda.<\/p>\n

Criales-Unzueta described the list as \u201can opportunity to showcase the way fashion and style are deeply embedded in culture and society\u201d and that \u201cstyle, good style, is a practice that is not reserved for celebrities or their stylists\u201d.<\/p>\n

An AI-generated image of Pope Francis in a white puffer jacket. Illustration: Reddit<\/p>\n

When Leo was first spotted last May wearing Nike trainers in a still from Leone a Roma, a Vatican-produced documentary that retraces his time in Rome before he became pope, the image instantly went viral. Many people mistook it as fake. It was compared to the AI-generated image of Pope Francis wearing an oversized Balenciaga puffer jacket, which has since been described as \u201cthe first real mass-level AI misinformation case\u201d<\/a>. Criales-Unzueta said that was the moment Leo became \u201ca talking point in and outside of fashion\u201d. Trainer fans were quick to identify Leo\u2019s Nikes as a discontinued retro tennis-style shoe that was first sold in the 70s. \u201cWhat a papal flex,\u201d declared Esquire<\/a>, while some online users were quick to christen his style as \u201choly drip\u201d.<\/p>\n

By the end of last year, Leo found himself featured alongside A$AP Rocky and Bad Bunny in Vogue\u2019s best-dressed list, while the New York Times named him as one of its 67 Most Stylish People of 2025.<\/p>\n

Orsi said he had been thinking about what the trainers symbolised. \u201cA sportiness? A familiarity with track and field, basketball courts, running?\u201d he pondered. For him it was \u201ca lightness on his feet, a readiness to move quickly to where he is needed the most\u201d, he said. \u201cThey signal that he is approachable, like a good coach, and also humble.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time in a decade, Vanity Fair has released a best-dressed list. Featuring 70 names, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46],"class_list":["post-598877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}