Everyone’s a critic when HR attempts to institute dress codes. Well, the reviews are in for new robes that Britain’s top judges will soon be wearing, and they’re not all good.
The good news: The judges get to do away with their traditional wigs. The bad news: The new robes are color-coded, which had led at least one critic to liken them to the uniforms from the sci-fi series Star Trek.
The judges on the Appeal Court and High Court will start wearing the new robes in October which include color bands to identify seniority.
The most senior judges get gold bands; High Court judges get red ones.
British newspaper The Guardian deputy fashion editor Hadley Freeman said the new outfit would make the wearer look like an “evil pastor” or a “cut-price Cruella de Vil” from the Disney movie 101 Dalmatians.
To make the point about how the robes look like Star Trek uniforms, the newspaper juxtaposed a picture of a judge wearing one of the new robes and a snapshot of actor Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
The fashion editor quipped, “Instead of appearing imperious, the lord chief justice, Lord Phillips, now just looks like the man who sells you tickets for the Star Trek Experience … in Las Vegas.”
The Judicial Communications Office said the new robes would cut costs by reducing the number of robes certain judges had to wear.
