VIDEO: How to fold a cassock, normal and with a shoulder cape

During my last trip to Rome (thanks, donors), I had business at the famous clerical shop Gammarelli.

I ask one of the helpful men at the shop to demonstrate how properly to fold a cassock.   This is a useful skill.  If you must pack or transport your a cassock, folding it properly can help to keep it from emerging wrinkled and creased.

I recorded this on an iPhone and the video wound up side-wise!  Thanks to Fr. CD for converting it and making it useful. The business part of the video is a little narrow, but it is adequate.

Here you can see how to fold both a regular house cassock and a cassock with the shoulder cape or pellegrina (the example used belonged to a cardinal).

The video is in Italian, but the gestures and video are enough to let you know what to do. After this… practice makes perfect.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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9 Comments

  1. Chatto says:

    Ahh, see, that’s why you need to film with your phone in ‘landscape’ position, Father. Think about it, there are no ‘portrait’ TV’s of computer screens.

  2. iPadre says:

    Now that is a very useful video. Thank you!

  3. Elizabeth D says:

    I may rarely have a need for this knowledge, but that’s a delightful video. Actually there was a cassock left in the back of Holy Redeemer Church a while back and if I had know how to do this I am sure I would have folded it so it would be nice for whoever it belonged to.

  4. Animadversor says:

    Since no cleric practicing Franciscan simplicity and humility would ever possess more than one Gammarelli cassock, this whole problem can easily be avoided simply by wearing one’s cassock while traveling. That said, if one does in fact have multiple such impedimenta, then this video will be an excellent resource for one’s valet.

  5. Grateful to be Catholic says:

    Ah, which is more bella, bella: the Italiano or the perfect folding?

    I once had the honor of helping Cardinal Avery Dulles fold his cape into a very long garment bag after a commencement address. He was about 6’5″. I remarked that I now understood why cardinals needed baggage trains. He said that Cardinal Bellarmine was criticized for having only 50 servants in his traveling retinue; he was not maintaining the dignity of cardinals. I asked him whether anyone noticed his name as he passed through Washington’s Dulles Airport, named after his father. He said no. Then he left, on his own, back to Fordham. A lovely man, God rest him.

  6. Mariana2 says:

    How nice to be able to see inside Gammarelli’s. Thanks, Father! Also, what a good word, combacciare!

  7. Rob in Maine says:

    Not so different from how we were tought to fold our clothes, and raincoat, when I was in Boot Camp at Great Lakes, IL. I still fold my clothes teh Navy way twenty five years later.

  8. APX says:

    FYI, ladies,

    I just tested this out. It also works on a-line dresses of a more simple nature. I don’t own anything fancy, so I couldn’t test it on something more complicated. It might work.

  9. JohnNYC says:

    Thank you for posting this, Father!
    I need to bring my cassock back to Ety at C & G for minor alterations and until I watched this video at Gammarelli, I was uncomfortable about folding it up into my suitcase. No longer! Thank you so much!
    In Christo,
    John

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