He has been responsible for making the Swiss Guard outfits since 1997. Ety Cicioni is 40 years old; he was born in Giulianova, Abruzzo. Ety's childhood was fraught with difficulty. Even at such a tender age, he and his sisters had to deal with the absence of a father while their mother was expecting yet another sister. He earned his bachelor's degree in accounting while working seasonal jobs, and he went to work for a major textile firm in Teramo right away after graduation, where he quickly rose to the top and was able to further his career via a variety of training programs. His first day on the job as a tailor for the Pontifical Swiss Guards was November 3, 1997. Ety said, "There was a boy from Giulianova who had been working in the Vatican for some years, and he asked his mother, the owner of a laundry in Giulianova Paese, if he knew a couple of good tailors who could replace the very old tailor who was in the service of the Vatican Swiss Guard, left alone after the premature death of the collaborator." He has two kids, Matteo and Emanuele, with his wife, Lucia, and the family has settled permanently in Rome. He designed the Swiss Guard uniforms and has spoken at length about their "construction," saying things like, "It consists of 154 components, with 42 buttons, one of which is handcrafted and, to manufacture them, we depend on my mother-in-law, who has a fine hand".
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