British judges boldly go 700 years into the (near) future.

British judges have apparently made official what I blogged about here last July and have abandoned England and Wales' 700-year-old tradition of wearing horsehair wigs and other traditional judicial regalia in favor of new standardized robes with changeable collar tabs. The result has been a chorus of mockery from fashion critics and traditionalists, who say the new robes have turned judges into fugitives from a Star Trek episode.

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, seen here modeling the new robe, felt the old-style wig and gown look was out of touch with the 21st century and thought it was time to go bare-headed.

Apparently the colored (or coloured) tabs will substitute for the different colored robes that change with both the seasons and the nature of the case and thereby save a lot of money.

So from October, judges hearing civil and family cases in England and Wales will don a new robe designed by Betty Jackson, who also makes "funky British clothes for aspiring funky British girls.''

The Guardian offers this review:

It's not the slicks of colour down the front that are the most problematic - although this colour coding system does have a rather oddly naval smack to it - nor even the truncated collar, which cannot but make the wearer look like an evil pastor.... The slicks of colour down the front and around the cuffs, [make] each judge look like a cutprice Cruella de Vil....

Look at this poor man: 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 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

Ouch!

Over at the Times, Cambridge professor, Sir John Baker writes that he doesn't mind seeing the wigs go but when it comes to abandoning the traditional robes, he offers his two pence thusly:

Their symbolism is greatly enhanced by the knowledge that they are not the invention of imaginative couturiers but a proud inheritance. These are the robes of Coke, of Hale, of Holt, of Mansfield. They have been worn through all the vicissitudes of our history, through the Wars of the Roses, the Civil War, and the Blitz, by the guardians of our system of justice. They are well known everywhere and are still worn in many Commonwealth countries and even in some former Commonwealth countries. The reason for that is obvious to all. No other costume is more closely associated with freedom, judicial independence and fairness.

The remarkable costume modeled by the Lord Chief Justice owes nothing to our traditions of formal dress in this country, and seems to have been inspired by science-fiction cinema. At a time when the law of England faces perhaps the biggest threats in its history, it is severely unsettling to the public to find our judges wanting to look like warlords from outer space.

Double Ouch! (I'm with you Sir John.)

Beam me up Scotty.