The traditional wigs and gowns that are the hallmark of the legal profession are finally to be swept away in a shake-up of legal dress.

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, is set to abolish wigs — at least for civil, family and commercial cases — in a move that ends more than 300 years of tradition.

Instead he will announce soon that judges will have the choice of wearing a simple black robe, which will have either a facing or arm stripe of a particular colour, denoting their rank.

The colours will be gold for the Court of Appeal, red for the High Court, purple for the circuit bench and either green or blue for the district bench. The 17th-century horsehair wig will still be worn in criminal trials.

The issue of judicial dress has been one of Lord Phillips’s bugbears since he took office in October 2005, when he told The Times that wigs contributed to the public view of judges as old-fashioned and out-of-touch.

The new zip-up robe, which can be worn without a jacket underneath, is likely to be phased in and to be optional.

The Department for Constitutional Affairs is believed to be keen on the idea because of the cost savings. A judge’s daily wig costs some £800 and the full-bottomed wig £2,000.

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