In new role, his cardinal rule is safety

ROME -- Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley is not much of a clotheshorse, but on Monday he paid a visit to one of the most famous tailors in the world, Gammarelli, to buy a new outfit.

Gammarelli's has been tailor to popes for generations, or was at least until Benedict XVI, who is regarded as a clerical fashion plate of sorts, reportedly started shopping around.

But Boston's cardinal-designate, most comfortable in the brown hooded habit and sandals of his Capuchin Franciscan religious order, stopped by Monday to get measured for the red choir robes he'll need to wear to the Vatican consistory Friday, at which he will get the red biretta that signifies his new status as a cardinal. O'Malley says he'll wear red vestments only ''for top-drawer occasions," but the consistory and a Mass of the rings on Saturday certainly qualify.

Trying on a cassock, O'Malley said he felt, well, rather conspicuous.

''I said that I could always wear it if I was called to be on a hunting expedition with the vice president," he joked to two dozen Boston-based reporters in Rome yesterday. ''It is very red."

MICHAEL PAULSON