Beam me up, M'Lud: judges get 'Star Trek' outfits

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2008

LONDON (AFP) — Britain's top judges are to get a new outfit, doing away with their traditional wigs and introducing colour-coded robes which one critic likened to costumes from the hit sci-fi series Star Trek.

The new robes, to be worn by Appeal Court and High Court judges hearing civil cases from October, incorporate coloured bands to identify seniority, with the most senior judges sporting gold bands and High Court judges in red.

The Guardian's 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", the villain in the Disney cartoon "One Hundred and One Dalmatians".

Helpfully, it juxtaposed a picture of judge Nicholas Phillips, head of the judiciary in England and Wales,...