Italian designer Filippo Sorcinelli, who is openly gay, has been working for over 20 years designing papal vestments. He has dressed the last three Popes, having designed over 20 garments for Pope Francis, and is now working with Pope Leo XIV. 

The designer works with the Vatican’s Office, making decisions around colours, symbols, and fabric choices in accordance with the Church’s calendar. Sorcinelli, in an interview with Daily Mail, spoke about the experience of being openly gay within this role: “perhaps it means embracing one’s story without fear and transforming it into creative language”. 

He went on to say, “I have never seen faith and sexuality as a battle, but as a creative tension that fuels my work”.

Whilst a recent Vatican report included testimonies from married gay Catholics, a first for the Church, Pope Leo XIV has reiterated Pope Francis’ position in rejecting same-sex Catholic marriage. He adopts the same stance as Pope Francis in supporting non-liturgical blessings, but is currently not willing to improve the framework to allow for same-sex marriage ceremonies. 

Sorcinelli, however, has created a fashion legacy within his role as designer for the Pope. The garment which Pope Leo XIV wore in his first address at St. Peter’s Basilica included a stole created by Sorcinelli. Pope Leo XIV subsequently landed on Vogue’s best-dressed list of 2025, which included queer stars like Colman Domingo and Doechii. 

Alongside his work as a designer, Sorcinelli is both a perfumist and organist, demonstrating his versatility as an artist and also contextualising his collaborations with the Vatican. As an artist, he received the 2021 Art and Liturgy Prize for innovation in the field of sacred vestments, as a result of his work with Popes Benedict and Francis, a notable achievement for the gay designer. 

In a 2025 interview with Vogue, Sorcinelli noted that “many places still make those who are different—in orientation, gender, or personal history—feel judged or excluded. For a religion founded on a God who dined with outcasts, that is a wound that cries out.”