Formal fashion at the Supreme Court modernizes as justices don new black robes

For 150 years, judges of the Supreme Court of Canada have donned distinctive red robes trimmed with white fur – a judicial fashion whose earliest threads stretch back through centuries of British history to the reign of King Edward III in the 1300s.

But that changed this week. As part of the Supreme Court’s 150th anniversary this year, Chief Justice Richard Wagner and his colleagues on the country’s apex court debuted a new formal fashion for special occasions. The nine justices entered the courtroom in Ottawa on Monday in black silk robes, trimmed with two vertical bands of red.

Chief Justice Wagner called the robes distinctly Canadian. “They have a modern and simple design,” he said at the ceremonial opening of the judicial year, which begins with a fall session and concludes in the spring.

The old ceremonial red robes, worn a handful of times a year, weren’t exactly lauded and some of those who took notice dubbed them “Santa robes” for their resemblance to the sartorial preferences of the North Pole’s most famous resident.

Yet reviews of the new outfits have been mixed. Change, as always, can be jarring.

Traditionalists expressed umbrage. There were declarations of the court turning its back on history. “With the liquidation of another tradition, Canada becomes blander,” Riley Donovan, editor of the Dominion Review, posted on social media.

Not everyone’s a hater. One leading adjudicator of modern fashion, who often wields cutting judgments, chuckled at the switch from Santa to something more modern. Derek Guy, known online as @dieworkwear, opined: “a war on Christmas.”

While the old red robes seemed like a British common-law tradition bestowed on Canada never to be altered, judicial fashion has cautiously changed through the centuries. For everyday work, judges in Britain, Canada and elsewhere have long worn straightforward black robes, with the business attire of the day underneath.

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In Britain, some top judges since the 1600s on ceremonial occasions have worn black robes of silk damask with gold lace. This includes the current Supreme Court. Judges on the top courts in New Zealand in 2017 adopted new black robes to reflect local history and tradition.

Mr. Guy in an interview spoke of how formal wear evolves. The present is informed by the past. The Santa Claus impression is not a good look, he said, and clothing fails to communicate if it requires an involved explanation of the past. He said the new black robes make sense.

“It signals seriousness,” Mr. Guy said.

The old red robes were never especially popular among the nine people who had to shoulder the hot and heavy garments.

“Very, very, very heavy,” former justice Frank Iacobucci, who served on the Supreme Court from 1991 through 2004, said in 2020. Justice Andromache Karakatsanis, named to the court in 2011, was asked in 2016 what it was like to wear the red robes. “Awful,” she said, laughing.

Modernizing the court’s ceremonial robes was assigned to Les Rabat-Joies, a tailor of legal attire based in Saguenay, Que. They worked with Supreme Court justices Suzanne Côté and Michelle O’Bonsawin, along with registrar Chantal Carbonneau.

The aims ranged from style and comfort to expressions of dignity and authority. The Chief Justice granted final approvals as the design progressed. The new robes may appear plain, but up close one can see how they are meticulously crafted, with detailed embroidery, each requiring dozens of hours of work.

“It’s about how tradition and modernity can co-exist,” said Romane Le Gallou, owner of Les Rabat-Joies. “The Chief Justice said he wanted the robes to represent Canadian justice.”

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Critics of Chief Justice Wagner have taken issue with departures from traditions, from his annual press conferences to the new robes. Such changes are doubtlessly part of his focus in the years since he was promoted to the top judicial job in Canada in late 2017, after being named to the court in 2012.

More change is coming.

In 2021, the Governor-General issued new heraldic emblems to the Supreme Court: a flag, a stylized badge and a SC insignia. These are reflected in the embroidery of the new robes.

Next year, a renovation at the old courthouse in Ottawa begins. The Royal Coat of Arms has long hung above the courtroom bench. In another departure from tradition, the coat of arms, whose history goes back to 1921, is being replaced.

The courtroom at a new but temporary facility across the street in Ottawa, as well as eventually in the renovated old courtroom, will feature the Supreme Court’s four-year-old stylized badge.