Say it ain’t so! Along with Pope Benedict XVI’s retirement comes another surprise: it turns out that the pontiff never actually wore shoes by Prada, as it was widely reported throughout his eight-year papacy. CNN’s Christiane Amanpour explained on-air: “We have said for years ever since we watched this this Pope be elected in 2005, that he was wearing red Prada shoes. I’m afraid we’ve been wrong.”
Amounpour’s guest Monsignor Kevin Irwin concurred, explaining “They are red shoes given to him because Contantine gave him the privileges of being an emperor and he allowed him to wear red shoes and a red cape, but frankly the papal shoemaker is up the block. And it’s not Prada.”
On a brighter note, the Prada/Pope misunderstanding only led to good things. Esquire magazine even named Pope Benedict “Accessorizer of the Year” in 2007. But all the while, Vatican experts had doubts about the high fashion hoopla: "He wouldn’t know Gucci from Smoochi,” Marjorie Weeke, a former official at the Vatican’s Social Communications office told the Washington Post in 2005.
Unfortunately, Weeke’s opinion only materialized on the final day of Benedict’s papacy. As Irwin expressively stated: “The devil may have worn Prada, but not this Pope.”
