Obiter’s lower-brow sister-paper the Daily Mail has an unerring eye for accuracy. At least when it comes to identifying branded high-price fashion accessories sported by celebs.

It turned this eye to the picket lines of last week’s criminal bar ‘strike’.

‘Lady barrister clutching £1,100 Mulberry bag among thousands to walk out in protest at plans to slash legal aid budget,’ stormed the Mail’s front page, under the headline ‘The most privileged picket line ever?’.

It turned out that the bag was a present from the ‘lady barrister’s’ proud mum. And in any case, in its obsession with handbags the Mail missed the really expensive kit on parade – the protesters’ gowns, wigs and general flummery. A little online shopping for the full get-up (Obiter did not proceed to the checkout), showed up to £1,246 for a QC gown (less for a polyester one, though we understand the QC gown is what economists call a ‘Giffen good’), £425-£560 for a standard horsehair wig, waistcoats at up to £329, trousers £70, shirt £50, collar, bans and studs £15. However, a barrister bag to put it all in at £70 represents a hand-held saving on the Mulberry.

Still, with perhaps more of this to come, the Mail’s fashion team may right now be poring over the subtle differences in cut, stitch and sit between a Stanley Ley and an Ede & Ravenscroft, and will soon be able to cattily inform us which counsel cut corners by mail ordering from a robe-maker elsewhere in the Commonwealth.

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