UK Judges Lose Their Wigs

Courts

Posted Oct 3, 2008, 10:45 am CST
By Edward A. Adams

Most British judges gave up their wigs and elaborate robes on Oct. 1, and now sport simplified robes and their own hair (or lack thereof). And that’s a sorry state of affairs, writes Christopher Breward, the acting head of research at the Victoria and Albert Museum, in an op-ed in the Times of London.

“The drama and romance of traditional uniform has been jettisoned gradually for a banal and cowardly version of uniformity,” he says. Traders in London and New York who lost jobs at Lehman Brothers wore identical “smart-casual” wardrobes. “Things were very different at the last great crash when the sharp lapels of Wall Street in 1929 were utterly alien to the morning-suited reserve of Threadneedle Street.”

Breward’s museum has an upcoming exhibit on Russia’s Tsars, which “will display the elaborate uniforms of the Russian court from the 1720s to the early 20th century. But, as with my lament for the passing of Hanoverian glory in the robing of our judges, I fear that on viewing the gorgeous braid and fringes of Tsarist lackeys I will wax nostalgic for the imperial splendour of St Petersburg. A good old-fashioned uniform can still have that effect,” he says.

Comments

Report Abuse

Posted by Ab Gold - 3 months, 3 days, 6 hours, 7 minutes ago

I won’t miss it. They always looked funny, and I’m told they really smelled. Can you imagine wearing the same smelly wig for years, sweating under those silly things? I would have to laugh if I were making an argument to a bunch of men wearing puffy smelly wigs. I would be thinking it’s Halloween all year long over there. Can you imagine? This is a left-over from the Shakespearian era.

Commenting has expired on this post.

ABA Journal - Law News Now

Courts