Bob Dylan met Pope Leo XIV for a private audience in Rome, arriving in an outfit that combined a black hoodie with Western-inspired clothing and a polka-dot tie. The meeting took place between dates on Dylan’s European tour: he had performed in Milan on November 2 and was due to play in Rome on November 5.
Dylan wore a black Western-style jacket with contrasting stitching over a heavy black hoodie, zipped to the chest. Underneath, he had on a white collared shirt and a polka-dot cravat. He completed the look with the hood up over a black flat-brim cap; in some images, he also carried leather gloves and an umbrella that appeared to double as a cane.
The outfit drew on different chapters of Dylan’s changing style. He took to wearing hoodies in the early 1990s, while his later looks often included Western and riverboat-inspired pieces such as wide-brimmed hats, long coats and string ties. The polka dots also echoed an earlier period in his wardrobe.
This was not Dylan’s first meeting with a pope. In 1997, he performed for John Paul II at the World Eucharistic Congress in Bologna, wearing a Western suit and Stetson. Pope Leo, born Robert Francis Prevost, wore a white cassock and zucchetto for the Rome audience.
Sources: GQ.