Infallible type: Pope Leo seems in Vanity Fair’s ranks of most trendy | Trend

For the primary time in a decade, Vanity Fair has launched a best-dressed list. Featuring 70 names, the record ranks essentially the most trendy folks within the planet in 2026. The lineup consists of the same old suspects spanning Hollywood actors and world pop stars however nestled among the many Hollywood stars is an surprising entrant. Pope Leo XIV.

The 70-year-old head of the Catholic church has been praised by the journal for taking papal type “to heavenly heights”. His most memorable look? A easy white cassock styled with a pair of Nike trainers.

Vanity Fair’s type correspondent José Criales-Unzueta, who labored on compiling the record, mentioned he and the workforce had been impressed by the “innate Americanness” of the best way the pope dressed.

The Chicago-born pontiff has carved out a method area of interest and garnered a loyal trend following along with his enthusiasm for each bespoke vestments and classic trend equipment. Alongside trainers, he prefers easy black oxford footwear to the standard purple papal slippers.

He wears a discontinued Swiss-made quartz watch, carries his personal battered briefcase and in June 2025 popped a White Sox baseball cap over his papal cap for a common viewers in St Peter’s Square. For extra formal events, he turns to the Italian designer Filippo Sorcinelli, who additionally created liturgical vestments for the earlier popes Benedict XVI and Francis.

The Catholic church, with its lengthy mastery of symbolism and optics, is experiencing an uptick pushed by gen Z. For Leo, being featured in a publication that its world editorial director, Mark Guiducci, has described as a “journal about personalities” and that feels “just like the pantheon” works nicely with the papacy’s personal intention to place itself as a contemporary energy.

“The planet’s embrace of this pope has been gorgeous to me,” mentioned Robert Orsi, a professor of non secular research at Northwestern University in Illinois. Orsi pointed to Leo’s criticism of AI and requires peace as additionally chatting with gen Z.

Carol Richardson, a professor of early fashionable artwork historical past on the University of Edinburgh, mentioned the pope, who has his personal Instagram account, would pay attention to his inclusion on the record. “He and the folks surrounding him are very savvy,” she mentioned. “The majority will assume it’s enjoyable. They will like the very fact it has been seen how busy he’s, that he has to put on trainers to run round in. That he’s working.”

From Christian Lacroix ecclesiastical riffing within the 80s and the Met’s Heavenly Bodies exhibition in 2018 to crucifixes and depictions of Christ on the latest catwalks, the papacy has lengthy fascinated trend. Criales-Unzueta says its enchantment lies in its vastness. “There is a lot to soak up and a lot to search out inspiration in.”

The pontiff is listed in Vanity Fair’s “originals” division, a class of people counseled by the journal for being “essentially the most outlandish and revolutionary dressers” with “a singular viewpoint”. Others on the record embody the film-maker Spike Lee and the singers Björk and Rosalía.

Criales-Unzueta described the record as “a chance to showcase the best way trend and magnificence are deeply embedded in tradition and society” and that “type, good type, is a observe that’s not reserved for celebrities or their stylists”.

When Leo was first noticed final May sporting Nike trainers in a nonetheless from Leone a Roma, a Vatican-produced documentary that retraces his time in Rome earlier than he turned pope, the picture immediately went viral. Many folks mistook it as faux. It was in comparison with the AI-generated picture of Pope Francis sporting an outsized Balenciaga puffer jacket, which has since been described as “the first real mass-level AI misinformation case”. Criales-Unzueta mentioned that was the second Leo turned “a speaking level in and outdoors of trend”. Trainer followers had been fast to determine Leo’s Nikes as a discontinued retro tennis-style shoe that was first bought within the 70s. “What a papal flex,” declared Esquire, whereas some on-line customers had been fast to christen his type as “holy drip”.

By the top of final 12 months, Leo discovered himself featured alongside A$AP Rocky and Bad Bunny in Vogue’s best-dressed record, whereas the New York Times named him as one in all its 67 Most Stylish People of 2025.

Orsi mentioned he had been excited about what the trainers symbolised. “A sportiness? A familiarity with observe and discipline, basketball courts, working?” he contemplated. For him it was “a lightness on his toes, a readiness to maneuver rapidly to the place he’s wanted essentially the most”, he mentioned. “They sign that he’s approachable, like a very good coach, and in addition humble.”