Papal slippers, Enclosed cognition effect and The Stalker
Design Ideas and Random Thoughts
Read Time: 3-4 min
Wise words:
“Fashion is the armour to survive the reality of everyday life.” — Bill Cunningham
Behavioral bias of the week:
🧠 The Enclothed Cognition Effect
This psychological principle suggests that what we wear doesn't just influence how others perceive us — it actually affects how we think, feel, and perform.
Wearing something symbolic, like a lab coat or religious vestment, can boost focus, amplify identity, and even change moral behaviour.
The Papal Slippers – A Holy Step Into Fashion History
If clothes make the man, then shoes make the Pope.
For centuries, the Pope’s red slippers have been quietly (and sometimes flamboyantly) shaping how we interpret power, tradition, and style at the very highest level.
While modern eyes might know them through HBO’s The Young Pope (2016) or the Netflix film The Two Popes (2019), these red shoes are anything but costume.
A History Drenched in Red
The origins of papal slippers date back to Byzantine times, when red footwear symbolised imperial power and martyrdom. The tradition stuck. Roman Emperors adopted them, and by the medieval period, if your shoes were red — you were somebody.
The Vatican fully embraced this logic.
Papal red slippers (there are two types — indoor liturgical silk slippers and outdoor leather loafers) became symbols of spiritual and earthly authority. Some were gold brocaded. Others so soft and fluffy they could only have been stitched by loving hands — which they often were.
Pope Pius X, constantly ill and frail, wore white slippers made by his sisters. Another red pair was lined with serious fluff — holy hygge.
Pope Martin IV reportedly spent vast sums importing melon and wine-boiled eels. Leo X had a pet elephant. You get the idea — even shoes weren’t spared extravagance.
And for centuries, they were kissed — just as the ring still is today.
Paul VI 1897-1978
Pope John Paul II
Slipper Made for St. Pius X by His Sisters
Pope Leo Xiii Slippers 1878-1903
Drama, Buckles & Bucking the System
By the 1960s, fashion was changing — even at the Vatican.
In 1969, Pope Paul VI abolished the indoor slippers and outlawed the kissing of papal feet altogether. But as always, the system is rarely pure: Paul VI’s own wardrobe contained a pair so lavish they’d make a Medici blush.
Then came John Paul II, whose more humble brown loafers hinted at a soft rebellion against excess.
Enter Benedict XVI: The Style Pope
In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI turned heads — not with doctrine, but with leather. His vivid red shoes, handmade by Italian cobbler Adriano Stefanelli, reignited obsession. The press dubbed him "Pope Prada", even though the shoes weren’t from the fashion house.
In 2007, Esquire named him “Accessorizer of the Year.” The scarlet loafers became iconic — some said they signaled conservatism, others saw them as a return to tradition. Either way, they sparked conversation, and that’s what fashion does best.
Then came the end:
When Benedict stepped down in 2013 — the first pope in over 600 years to do so — he symbolically removed the red slippers and slipped into plain leather loafers gifted by Mexicans during a pastoral visit.
It was a soft goodbye, but a loud statement.
My Recommends this week:
🎥 Stalker (1979) – dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
A hypnotic masterpiece that still feels prophetic decades later. Set in a mysterious restricted area known as “The Zone,” Stalker is slow cinema at its finest — meditative, strange, and hauntingly beautiful. If you’ve never seen it (or haven’t revisited in years), this is a film that rewards your attention with silence, fog, and metaphysical depth.
Cinema at its most philosophical — and most hypnotic.
🎥: Check out the trailer here
🍺 Below Brew Co. – Alcohol-free beer brewed in Bath
I stumbled on this local gem recently, and I’m sold. Small-batch, alcohol-free craft beers that actually taste like something. The design’s cool, the beer’s crisp, and the head the next day? Non-existent. Hangovers are overrated anyway.
👉 belowbrewco.com