Official Dress
On normal sitting days, the Speaker wears a black silk lay-type gown (similar to a QC's gown) with (or without, in the case of Bercow) a train and a mourning rosette (also known as a 'wig bag') over the flap collar at the back.
On state occasions (such as the Opening of Parliament), the Speaker wears a robe of black satin damask trimmed with gold lace with full bottomed wig and, in the past, a tricorne hat.
The current Speaker no longer wears the traditional court dress outfit, which included knee breeches, silk stockings and buckled court shoes under their gown, or the wig. Betty Boothroyd first decided not to wear the wig and Michael Martin chose not to wear knee breeches, silk stockings or the traditional buckled shoes favouring flannel trousers and Oxford shoes. Bercow chose not to wear court dress altogether in favour of a lounge suit as he felt "uncomfortable" in court dress (he wore morning dress under the State Robe at State Openings). However, there is nothing stopping any given Speaker, if he or she chooses to do so, from assuming traditional court dress or anything he or she deems appropriate.
Read more about this topic: Speaker Of The British House Of Commons
Famous quotes containing the words official and/or dress:
“... it is a rather curious thing to have to divide one’s life into personal and official compartments and temporarily put the personal side into its hidden compartment to be taken out again when one’s official duties are at an end.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)
“Fantasies are more than substitutes for unpleasant reality; they are also dress rehearsals, plans. All acts performed in the world begin in the imagination.”
—Barbara Grizzuti Harrison (b.1941)