Designer Lisy Christl's costumes in Edward Berger's Conclave
Designer Lisy Christl’s costumes for Edward Berger’s ‘Conclave’. Photography: courtesy of Roadshow

EDWARD BERGER’S new film Conclave opens with the death of the pope, but it really begins when the cardinals arrive in Vatican City. They’re in town for conclave, the ‘Pope Idol’ process of electing a new pope. In the Casa Santa Marta courtyard, shot from above, cardinals from across the Catholic world are mingling: a trio huddle as they spark cigarettes, a cardinal greets another with open arms like a mafia don. But the players you need to know, the ones vying for the papacy with varying degrees of ambition and ardour? They’re all wearing really cool coats. 

Dean-Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (played by Ralph Fiennes), who was tasked with leading the papal conclave by the last pope, stands like a general in a black double-breasted coat as he welcomes his brothers. Lawrence’s closest ally, the liberal Aldo Bellini (Stanley Tucci), is dressed in a floor-grazing minimalist overcoat with a high-collar that gives the monastic impression of Yohji Yamamoto. More luxuriously is Cardinal Joseph Tremblay (John Lithgow), tall and in a fur cape. (Tremblay is the Vatican treasurer.) But more impressive is the loud Goffredo Tedesco from Venice (Sergio Castellitto), a very influential cardinal, who swans in wearing a puffy red cape.

It’s a wet winter’s day, and these outerwear details separate the main cast from the out-of-towners; these are the cardinals who live in the city. “There is not much space to individualise these men, but there is space because it’s winter in Rome and it’s humid and cold,” says Academy Award-nominated costume designer Lisy Christl, who is speaking to me on a similarly wet and grey December day in Rome, where she is currently undertaking research for another project. “It’s ghastly, and it really sneaks into your bones,” she observes of the weather.

Stanley Tucci in Conclave, costumes by Lisy Christl
“I wanted it to seem Japanese”, says Christl of Cardinal Bellini’s (Stanley Tucci) Yamamoto-esque overcoat. Photography: courtesy of Roadshow
Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto) in his puffy red cape, while also taking a hit from his also red vape.
Cardinal Goffredo Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto) in his puffy red cape, while also taking a hit from his similarly red vape. Photography: Lisy Christl

Despite the archaic setting, the main set of cardinals manage to look au courant, as if Bellini had just walked off Yamamoto’s runway in Paris, or Lawrence gets his clothes made on Savile Row. There’s a fierce and noble elegance to what they’re wearing; it offers a feel for their individual tastes. Indeed, in dressing row after row of cardinals sitting in the Sistine Chapel wearing identical scarlet cassocks, part of the challenge, Christl explains, was to bring forward the personality behind the uniform.

Uniforms are a fascination of Christl’s, who also designed the costumes for Berger’s 2022 film All Quiet on the Western Front. In researching the fundamentals of liturgical fashion for Conclave – studying every button, every accessory, how the church informs the vestment – Chirstl’s notes swelled to 300 pages. After learning the ins and outs, Christl met with religious advisor Francesco Bonomo, who “helped me understand that there are rules, but that there is also room in between.” It’s an approach akin to something like deconstructing a suit; to do it well, to say something new, the extensive background knowledge gave Christl the creative freedom and confidence to inject her own language into the clerical garb.

The crucifixes in Conclave
Silver and minimalist crucifixes for the liberal cardinals, gold and ornate for the conservatives. Photography: Lisy Christl

The crucifixes, for example, vary from cardinal to cardinal: gold to silver, ornate to minimalist, signifying whether the wearer is conservative or liberal. “This was my guideline,” she says of her costumes expressing political orientation, like wearing a pin. Five hundred and thirty pieces of jewellery, including crucifixes and rings, were commissioned from the Penko goldsmiths of Florence. Elsewhere, glasses act as a mark of modernity; you could picture Tedesco, with his thick specs and coiffed grey curls, as an art dealer in another life. “The Vatican is in a very chic neighbourhood in Rome, Prati is very chic,” she adds. “And so I thought, These men live in Italy, where do they go [for glasses]? They go to an optician around the corner . . . So we chose an Italian brand, Bobsdrunk.” 

In the little space she has, the element of ‘personal style flourishes’ offers glimpses of a cardinal’s moral character. The effect comes as grace notes that wink and surprise; Christl imagines where these holy men shop for such items, like a white collar worker and his statement socks. For these men, who are supposed to be humanity’s exemplars, any seeking advantage has to be quiet – they wear their ambition on their sleeve.

“I find it really interesting that in our day, when we talk about fast fashion, there is also a big group of people who are bold enough to decide for a very specific way of life, and they decide on one way of dress,” Christl observes. Christl’s work is not a mere recreation of what cardinals actually wear; she uses the leeway to demonstrate the cinematic stakes at hand. In the film, with every fruitless voting round of conclave, the cardinals reckon with the future of the church against the background of civil unrest. Of the glasses, Christl adds, “We are in 2024. Why should I give them glasses from the ’80s? Isn’t it more interesting to bring them into the now?”

Sergio Catellitto in Conclave
In another life, Tedesco could be an art dealer with those stylish specs. Photography: courtesy of Roadshow

Christl, who grew up in Germany’s Catholic south, understood early on in production that “a part of the faith is beauty”. But while finding her footing in the Catholic world, Christl faced another roadblock. “In 1962, during the Second Vatican Council, bishops from all over the world met and decided to change the vestment . . . and I would say not in a good direction, because the vestment was way more beautiful before.” Chasubles, for example, a poncho-like cloak worn during ceremonies, counted its weight in ornate brocades and embroidery of gold and silver thread. Not to their exacting tastes, Christl and Berger “were a bit stuck in order to give ourselves the allowance to change the Catholic vestment.”

Conclave costume designer Lisy Christl's inspiration from Balenciaga
Mood board: a Balenciaga collection by Demna Gvasalia inspired Christl’s work. Photography: Lisy Christl
Ralph Fiennes in Conclave
“I can read the influence, I can see the style, how high fashion is influenced by clerical vestment,” says Christl on plucking inspiration from fashion designers. Photography: courtesy of Roadshow

But one day, Christl happened upon a Balenciaga fashion show by Demna Gvasalia. It was the menswear spring-summer 2020 show, a collection Gvasalia described at the time as “power dressing and fashion uniforms”. Gvasalia’s tailoring of huge shoulders that draped a boxy cut was an effort to make easy-to-wear volumes democratic. In the midst of his European avant-gardism, somehow, to Christl’s eye, she found her way back in. “I saw that and I thought, Wow, maybe I should send this to Edward. Then I thought, No, he might think I’m totally crazy,” she says. “And one week later he sent it to me and I called him and I said, ‘This is amazing. A week ago I saw it and I wanted to send it to you and I thought maybe not. And now you are sending it to me’ . . . And so I always asked for permission from my religious advisor, and I said, ‘Do you think I can do this?’ And he said, ‘Yes, of course you can’.”

Isabella Rossellini as Sister Agnew in Conclave
Christl was inspired by Cristól Balenciaga’s 1967 bridal dress for the nun’s head-piece, these “brides of God.” Photography: courtesy of Roadshow

Now with Berger and Bonomo’s blessing, Gvasalia’s designs were catalytic to opening up Christal’s eye to other Catholic fashion images. “And years ago there was a fantastic exhibition in New York called ‘Heavenly Bodies [Fashion and the Catholic Imagination’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art]. With all this knowledge, all these books about liturgical vestment, it all made so much more sense. It belongs in the film . . . I would say very big fashion designers, whether from France or Italy, both countries are very Catholic countries. And there it comes together in a way: when you see old designs from Dolce & Gabbana or Cristóbal Balenciaga, of course, I can read the influence, I can see the style, how high fashion is influenced by clerical vestment.”

Fashion’s Catholic imagination has shown up in sci-fi sagas like Dune, wherein the effect is that thousands of years from now, some variation of religion still exists. But Christl’s work in Conclave is the first instance of high fashion’s ideas about Catholicism making its way back into the Vatican. Balenciaga (the man), a devout Catholic himself who once considered joining the priesthood, was a keen interest for Christl. In an old book about the designer that she’s had since the late ’80s, Christl found the nun’s habit that the Sisters, led by the imperious Sister Agnes (Isabella Rossellini), would make their entrance in: a bridal head-piece for these “brides of God”. Prada and Jil Sander, as well (think of their ’90s minimalist fame), inspired Christl to eschew the idiosyncratic lace on the rochet, a white tunic, for clean, straight lines.

Lisy Christl and Edward Berger on the set of Conclave
Christl (front left) and Berger on the set of ‘Conclave’. Photography: courtesy of Roadshow

Part of Christl’s mission was to be subtle, discreet – all in an effort to remain respectful to the church and those faithful in the audience. Having said that, the most evident piece of her handiwork was establishing the film’s shade of red. She points to a television broadcast of the 2013 conclave as the cardinals walk in a procession into the Sistine Chapel. “It’s too orangey,” she says. “When I went to Rome for the first time with Edward, I showed him the original [swatches] and I said, ‘Just stare at it for 10 minutes and notice what it does to your eyes’. We found it difficult.” This also meant not working directly with Gammarelli, the pope’s official tailor since 1798. Deciding to change the colour was ultimately an emotional decision for Christl, “it should embrace you.” Working with textile designer Marie Heitzinger, the resulting red is blue-toned, warmer, which, against all the marble, has an austere effect. On a practical note, it’s easier on the eyes for the film’s two-hour runtime. 

Lisy Christl's shade of red for Conclave
Developing her specific shade of red. Photography: Lisy Christl
Stanley Tucci in Conclave
A warm, blue-toned red, Christl’s original red is visually striking. Photography: courtesy of Roadshow

During a heated debate amongst the cardinal factions after a bombing attack on the conclave, their ruby-red cassocks, in contrast to the teal auditorium chairs, shows how masterfully Christl’s work has bled into the other production departments. Colour has brought together all that she wanted to achieve with reshaping the uniform, her taste elevating the papal thriller to become one of the year’s most stylish and visually striking films.

‘Conclave’ is out now in Australian cinemas.

Cardinals in Edward Berger's Conclave
‘Conclave’ by Edward Berger. Photography: Lisy Christl

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