Daily Diary

One size fits Maul

Posted 19/05/2008 by The Daily Diary

Last week the new get-up for benchers in civil and family cases was unveiled by glamorously-named fashionista Betty Jackson, a designer with elite haute couture boutique Debenhams.

Jackson, who knocked out the costumes for free in the first example The Diary has ever heard of a pro bono stylist, certainly did justice to the dignity and grandeur of the judiciary, saying: “The idea of collar bands is retained in the coloured bands. It’s quite a big thing after 300 years of history.”

To your correspondent’s m’Luddite eye, the new designs appear not unlike the robes worn by Darth Maul, of Phantom Menace infamy, or possibly V (minus the Guy Fawkes mask and eight-inch throwing knives… for now, anyway) from V For Vendetta.

Either way, the black and red colours – emblematic both of UK fascism and, conversely, the anarchist movement – mean there should still be plenty of calls for order in court.

A size-zero Lord Chief Justice shows off his new garb