British Court Attire Under the Microscope

By KIM MURPHY, Los Angeles Times
May 16, 2008

LONDON — Britain has always been a place where, if someone asks, "Why?" and the answer is, "Because we've been doing it that way for the last 800 years," the conversation is pretty much over.

So it is perhaps not surprising that the idea of ending the practice of outfitting judges and lawyers in curled wigs and tassled gowns a la 1685 has not been met with enthusiasm.

British lawyers have been — who would have thought it? — arguing over the issue for the better part of the last 16 years, with a substantial majority apparently in favor of keeping things exactly as they have been.

With that in mind, Lord Chief Justice Nicholas Phillips figured that if he was going to take on 300 years of tradition, he'd better do it in style. This week, he unveiled the modern new robe that judges in the civil courts of England and Wales are expected to wear beginning in October — minus the traditional wing collar and minus, oh so importantly, the venerable white horsehair wig.

Judges, barristers, and solicitors will continue to sport traditional attire in criminal courts, where lawyers say it's important for defendants not to be judged by the their advocates' suits. But even there, wigs already may be on a long slow road to ruin. "The stage is set for anarchy. Did no one tell his Lordship about Samson and Delilah?" the Times of London wondered.

The new continental-style outfit, featuring such innovations as pockets, snap fasteners, and color-coded bands depending on the court, was conceived by celebrity fashion designer Betty Jackson, who once in another context described her clothing creations as "easy, fabulous, and gorgeous."

The fashionistas so far have not been wowed.

"If humanizing the judicial profession was the aim of this makeover, it is interesting that Betty Jackson decided that the outfit best suited for this would be one that looks like something an alien android with menacing religious undertones would wear when waging war with Doctor Who," the Guardian's deputy fashion editor, Hadley Freeman, sniffed.

The Daily Mail juxtaposed a photo of a bare-headed Lord Phillips in the new robe next to a picture of baldish actor Patrick Stewart in his Star Trek garb.

Lord Phillips, who says he is seeking to rid the public of any notion that judges are old-fashioned and out-of-touch, has admitted that not all his fellow jurists like the new outfit that much. But most do, he asserts, and he assumes the rest will get used to it.

Long ago, not everyone thought the heavy, hot, itchy head gear should be a fixture. "Who would have supposed that this grotesque ornament," former Lord Chancellor John Campbell wrote in 1845, "fit only for an African Chief, would be considered indispensably necessary for the administration of justice in the middle of the 19th century?" The big question now is whether lawyers practicing in the civil courts can be persuaded to go along with the judges and also give the heave-ho to their wigs, which in survey after survey attorneys have indicated they cherish as much as truth itself.