The Judicial Committee of House of Lords which preceeded the UK SC did not wear Coiurt dress either for decades. Its a carryover from there.
How can a waistcoat have cuffs?
Previous thread where the issue came up: What’s a Canadian courtroom like?
Only on formal occasions, like a swearing-in or opening of Parliament. Here’s a picture of them: Judges of the Supreme Court.
They used to wear the red robes when hearing an appeal in a death penalty case, but that hasn’t been needed for over fifty years.
The UK Supreme Court might not expect dress-up for hearings, but the judges do have rather grand outfits for special occasions:
In the lower courts, wigs and formalities can be set aside where children may be involved.
Including the U.S. in its earliest days - here’s John Jay, first Chief Justice of the United States: John Jay - Wikipedia. I’ve seen this actual painting at the Supreme Court.
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So how much does a horsehair wig cost? (I could Google it, but you know.)
I thought kilts were worn primarily as formal dress, and therefore only with a white tie?
No. There are many variants on formal dress which do not involve white tie.
Formal is white tie, informal is black tie, and morning suits are worn between noon and dinner.
Business suits are blue or black.
Watches are not worn at social events.
Men don’t have a hell of a lot of rules to follow, so I don’t think this is too onerous.
If you’re wearing a kilt, is should be ceremonial, and therefore white tie and watch-less.
The link in post 2 says, “A judge’s full-length wig can cost more than $3,000, while the shorter ones worn by barristers cost more than $500.”
Black tie, white tie and morning dress are all formal. (And there are still other formal modes, e.g. court dress, but let’s not worry about those.)
And they are certainly formal in the sense that a kilt is formal. Kilts can be worn at white tie, black tie and morning dress events, and there are conventions in each case for what should be worn with the kilt. As regards ties, if wearing a kilt to a black tie event, you would generally wear a black tie, but at a white tie event you would wear a white jabot. At a morning dress event a grey tie would be strictly correct, though any solid colour or, if appropriate, regimental-type stripe is probably acceptable, such is the laxity of our age.
I paid 400 pounds for a second hand wig. Gown was about 490 Pounds if memory serves. Bands along with collar were another 50.
Chambers and sometimes Court offices had spare ones to wearvin
I am wearing the bands and gown as I type.
We call them “tabs” in Canada, not “bands”. Interesting trivial difference.
My robes cost about the same as your estimate.
Fortunately, no wig!
In an episode of Downtown Abbey, the Earl for some reason was unable to come to dinner in the expected white tie and tails, and wore a tux instead. His very traditional mother the Dowager Countess said disapprovingly, “You look as if you’re going to a barbecue!”
The way men’s business clothing is trending in the US, the business suit might one day go the way of the wig, surviving only as a relic worn formally in the courtroom.
There’s a fairly regular cycle in which one style of formal is superseded by something which at the time is considered informal, but becomes the new formal. The full frock-coat was succeeded by the tail coat, which was considered casual because it was cut for riding on a horse, rather than in a carriage. (The transition from knee-britches and host to trousers occurred at about the same time, and for the same reasons.) The tail-coat in turn was succeeded by the dinner jacket, which had no tails at all so it was convenient for sitting down in. The dinner jacket was succeeded by the lounge suit, which we now call the business suit - a telling change. The business suit is in the course of being succeeded by “office casual”. And so it goes.
Well, before I thought I had only one, but:
“tabs”?
“bands”?
So when Bertie Wooster dons the soup-and-fish, which is he wearing?
Gentlemen’s evening wear, as worn to a dinner; most likely black tie.