Bob Dylan meets Pope Leo XIV in hoodie and gloves, Swiss style expert calls the Vatican outfit disrespectful

Bob Dylan arrived for a private audience with Pope Leo XIV in the Apostolic Palace on Wednesday wearing a black hoodie with the hood up, black gloves, a loosely tied tie and an umbrella. The American singer, a Nobel laureate in Literature, is currently on his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour and is scheduled to perform in Rome on Thursday.

Swiss commentators took the outfit as a personal affront. Style expert Alf Heller, quoted by the newspaper Blick, called it "simply styleless and disrespectful" — not for lack of a tailored suit or luxury labels, he insisted, but because "fashion is always also communication" and "even a genius is not exempt from every dress code." Even Heller conceded that Dylan is "an exceptional artist, an icon and a free spirit who cares little about conventions." Styling consultant Luisa Rossi reached the opposite conclusion: Dylan looked "like a monk," dressed exactly as he dresses everywhere and disguising nothing. Had he turned up in red, she would have found it pushy.

The clothes are, in fact, Dylan's working wardrobe — he has worn dark clothing with headwear on stage for years, and he has a record with institutions. In 2016 he declined to attend the Nobel ceremony in Stockholm, citing existing commitments, and collected the medal and certificate only in April 2017. Wednesday was not even his first papal encounter: in 1997 he performed for John Paul II in Bologna.

The courtship, meanwhile, has run partly in the other direction. In July, Leo XIV put a line from Dylan's previously unpublished 1963 anti-war song "Go Away You Bomb" in the preface to his book on peace: "I hate you because you are made by people, possessed by people and handled by people."

The two men exchanged gifts. The Pope gave Dylan a rosary. Dylan gave the Pope a copy of his autobiography, "Chronicles: Volume One."