Filippo Sorcinelli’s fascination with sacred vestments began when he was a child, accompanying his mother every Saturday as she cleaned the church in Mondolfo, the village in the province of Pesaro and Urbino where he was born. He waited for her in the sacristy and never got bored. The incense captivated him — he would go on to become an exceptional perfumer. The pipe organ enchanted him — he would become a master organist. The vestments called to him with their colors, embroidery, and the messages they conveyed.

In 2000, at the age of 25, he sewed his first vestment for a friend who was becoming a priest; in 2001, he founded LAVS. The fine fabrics, the precious trims he designed himself, and the impeccable craftsmanship made his atelier a point of reference for dioceses in Italy and abroad. Over time, he would recreate the vestments of Celestine V and sew a gown for the Madonna del Carmine in Trastevere. Then came a phone call: the Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff summoned him — Benedict XVI wanted his vestments. After Ratzinger came Francis, and after Francis, Leo XIV, with whom the collaboration began from the first celebration in the Sistine Chapel.

In the Santarcangelo atelier, where Sorcinelli works with twelve collaborators, visitors can see the workshop and observe the artisans at work. Everything they produce — vestments as well as liturgical furnishings and accessories — can then be admired in the showroom. Finally, two secrets will be revealed: how it is possible for the papal vestments to be both there and in the Vatican at the same time, and how a custom-made garment for a Pope is created without circling him with measuring tape and pins.