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:
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—Vera Brittain (1893–1970)
“Iconic clothing has been secularized.... A guardsman in a dress uniform is ostensibly an icon of aggression; his coat is red as the blood he hopes to shed. Seen on a coat-hanger, with no man inside it, the uniform loses all its blustering significance and, to the innocent eye seduced by decorative colour and tactile braid, it is as abstract in symbolic information as a parasol to an Eskimo. It becomes simply magnificent.”
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