7 of Walter Mercado’s Most Fabulously Bejeweled Capes

Capes used to be part of Walter Mercado’s uniform – until they overshadowed him. In his lifetime, he’s amassed nearly 1,500 capes, including one with a bedazzled Puerto Rican flag. Some he donated to a charity. Others he stores in an air conditioned house in Miami, never to be worn again. A few years ago, our spiritual advisor stopped wearing them. “When people imitated me, they just wore a wig and a cape,” he told El Nuevo Día in 2012. “But they didn’t imitate my essence or my message either.”

Though his clothing is still as shiny as ever – because as he told Hola, “better off dead than basic” – we can’t deny that caped Walter is the best Walter. Because we long for the days when Walter’s cloak game was strong, we’re looking back at some of his best warlock capes/wizard robes/clairvoyant frocks and rating them on a scale of 1 to 5.