Criminal lawyers, he said, appreciate the “anonymity” afforded by everyone behind the bar wearing the same $1,590, “forensic” (or “of the law”) wig and matching sober gown.

“It’s important in the sense that if you’re prosecuting, or even defending, the color of your tie or the cut of your jacket matters not,” Ikram said. “There are also issues of the formality of the occasion. You are in a courtroom, you are being questioned, you will tell the truth . . . it is part of that historic symbolism of the state’s authority.”

The chief justice’s new dress code for judges in the civil and family courts is not binding on lawyers, and the Bar Council is in the process of deciding how it will respond, said spokeswoman Samina Ansari.