What About the Wigs?

Eric recently had a post on the new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, which opened last Friday.  But he misses the major point -- well, not really a major point -- which is that the wigs are apparently going away:

For the official opening ceremony Friday morning, the 11 judges (one slot is vacant) shed their old red robes and the wigs worn by lords on formal occasions -- Lord Phillips calls it the "Father Christmas outfit" -- in favor of new ceremonial black robes, embellished with gold lace and thread.

(More after the jump.)

Another parallelism/circularity there; the late Chief Justice Rehnquist had his gold stripes stitched into his robe so as to emulate the British Lord Chancellor in the Gilbert & Sullivan Opera, Iolanthe.  And our judicial big shots were there too for the opening:

The occasion is noteworthy enough that the U.S. Supreme Court canceled its session Friday so that Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Antonin Scalia and Stephen Breyer could attend the U.K. court's opening, with Queen Elizabeth II presiding.

But let's keep our focus: what happened to the wigs?  An article sadly titled, "British Judges Lose Traditional Wigs" explains further:

A new regulation in Britain says judges in most of the country's courts will no longer be required to wear their traditional wigs.

The regulation, which went into effect Thursday, means the horsehair barristers' wigs that typically adorn the heads of most British judges will essentially be extinct in the country's courtrooms, The Times of London reported.

The loss of the wigs represents an attempt to modernize the British legal system and is accompanied by the implementation of a new robe design for all judges as well. The new robes were created by designer Betty Jackson and include dark blue gabardine materials and velvet facings, The Times said.

The modern changes in British courtrooms after 300 years of the traditional judicial garb will not affect the country's criminal courts. Judges in those courts will still be adorned with the gray wigs and traditional robes, the newspaper said.

At least the criminal justice system will be intact after this terrible loss.