Access to business attire as a widening participation issue in UK law schools

ABSTRACT Despite the suit being the very iconography of the lawyer, access to business attire is a curiously overlooked aspect of academic work on our most marginalised aspiring legal professionals, namely widening participation (WP) students. This article seeks to address that omission. Taking an interdisciplinary approach drawing on fashion and textile studies, sociology, urban geography, cultural and gender studies, it frames the issue of formal attire and access to the same explicitly as a WP issue. It discusses the “hidden curriculum” surrounding professional dress, maps out the subtle and unexpected ways in which certain students can be excluded from the textiles marketplace, and problems within that marketplace itself. While recognising that WP categories can often intersect, the article takes a thematic approach, grouping the analysis around disability; gender; fast fashion, sustainability and class; the influence of the pandemic; and graduation. Although clothing loan schemes and limited bursaries are understandable solutions, the argument proposed is that these reproduce and exacerbate existing inequalities, and that choice, ownership and access to materials of quality which recognise the full funding implications of a professional wardrobe are essential if WP students are to have parity of access to correct and adequate attire with their non-WP peers.


Introduction
Clothes act as a powerful social semaphore.Our wardrobes both figuratively and literally clothe us with economic, cultural and social capital.As Dalby observes, "The capacity of clothing to convey information is enormous.Its messages are silently and efficiently broadcast to other members of society, who are all equipped by cultural knowledge to read its codes at a glance . . .". 1 First impressions are thus not verbal but sartorial, and our choice of attire wordlessly speaks volumes about us. 2 The semiotics of dress are heavily freighted with unspoken but widely understood meaning, and whereas the "right" clothing can open the gateway to success and acceptance, clothing perceived to be "wrong" instantly draws opprobrium. 3Sartorial slips signal the outsider.
As such, the importance of making the "right" clothing choices takes on particular significance in a professional context.One of the most important ways in which any profession can project its image to the public is through dress, and what is worn sends a multitude of signals about the wearer, such as indicators of class, status, affluence, sexuality, gender and race.This non-verbal language of clothing is particularly amplified in the world of law, where lawyers dress apart.The solemnity, formality and dignity provided by formal court attire underpin the administration of justice, court clothing being both functional and performative.Beneath the wigs and gowns, "suits" becomes a metonym for the profession, 4 and the visual semiotics of smart dress as status-announcing are writ large on law firms' websites where partners are portrayed in highly tailored attire. 5Dressing "correctly" lies at the heart of creating the confident and professional persona, particularly a legal one, marking the boundary between belonging and marginalisation.For those seeking to enter the profession, business attire is essentially a precondition of interviews, work placements and later employment, and widely expected of a multitude of settings such as court attendance, clinical work, client meetings, shadowing and marshalling, employability outreach, networking and corporate events. 6However, as this article seeks to argue, access to correct attire is arguably problematic for our most marginalised aspiring legal professionals, namely students from widening participation (WP) backgrounds.Given the significance of clothing as signalling class, rank and status, it becomes especially important that WP students are able to obtain appropriate workwear to avoid further marginalisation, but whereas clearly signposted funding may be available to facilitate coaching, paying for travel to a work-related event or for overnight accommodation, provision for clothing may not be explicitly or adequately catered for. 7Benevolent clothing loan schemes, or limited funds for the purchase of new but inevitably cheap attire given budgetary constraints are understandable responses; however, as this article intends to argue, these alternatives are problematic for WP students for a number of reasons.6 The annual Law Ball, usually the highlight of the social calendar, is a prime event for the career-oriented undergraduate, but an increasingly sartorially demanding one alongside careers dinners and business breakfasts.In the UK context, while not all legal professionals will wear suits in practice (for example, in-house lawyers may also dress informally, whereas those working with care-leavers or children may find less formal attire appropriate), smart clothes are still required for initial access.
At my own institution, £200 maximum can be spent on professional clothing.See further <https://portal.lancaster.ac.uk/ask/money/funding-grants-support/interview-support> accessed 21 November 2023.As noted below at n 17 it is not explicitly mentioned in government funding.
Despite the suit being the very iconography of the lawyer, access to business attire is a curiously overlooked aspect of academic work on WP in legal education. 8This article seeks to address that gap, framing the importance of formal attire and access to the same explicitly as a WP issue.It maps out the complex, subtle and unexpected ways in which these students can be affected by their lack of access and the difficulties in obtaining suitable attire, and particularly how limited funds affect choice.Given the centrality of dress to professionalism, exposing how and why WP students can be affected by lack of access to formal dress is important if we want to enable their full participation and progression at the most formative stage of their legal career, and to have solutions which appreciate the multiple barriers that they face in this sphere.The lack of a body of work which examines this issue from a WP perspective is perhaps unsurprising: As Brydon and Niessen note, the study of clothing has long been a marginalised academic subject, effectively subjugated by the prevailing masculinist academic project which prioritises the sphere of rationalism and objectivity over the "feminine" sphere of the somatic and subjective.As they observe, such "soft" fields "are involved in endless struggles for credibility even when the university's pursuit of knowledge is touted as universal". 9To thus link professional dress with widening participation in academic writing is an act which addresses and challenges multiple and intersecting marginalisations.
While the precise definition of WP may vary from institution to institution, it is generally understood to mean ensuring that under-represented groups can participate, and are supported, in higher education, so that all can succeed regardless of background. 10WP typically covers groups from low-income backgrounds; where local participation rates in higher education are low; 11 first in family to go to university; those in receipt of bursaries; those in receipt of free school meals; mature students (over 21); Black, Minority Ethnic or Asian students; those with disabilities; care-leavers; carers; students estranged from their families; military families; students from Gypsy, Roma or Travelling backgrounds; 12  I organise my argument around a number of distinct issues, taking an interdisciplinary approach using work from sociology, cultural studies, urban geography, gender studies, and fashion and textile studies, to inform my analysis.First, I explore the problems of acquiring suitable attire for students living with a disability, interpreting disability to include physical as well as cognitive issues.I argue that the standard textile silhouette of the able-bodied and neurotypical individual poses distinct problems for those who do not fit that particular pattern.Second, I explore the difficulties of acquiring suitable attire through the lens of gender.Although gender is not a distinct WP category, I take the position that there are multiple and intersecting gender-related issues in relation to clothes which strongly speak to marginalisation and under-representation.The highly (hetero)sexualised and (male) gendered image of the legal professional -a paradigm largely constructed through attire -is also critically examined and linked to issues of age, race and religion.Third, I consider the questions of fast fashion and sustainability through the lens of class.Focusing on different (and often contradictory) valences accorded to secondhand items depending on social and cultural position, I explain why clothing loan schemes and cheap fast-fashion alternatives are inadequate and problematic solutions for some of our WP students from financially constrained backgrounds.Fourth, I explore clothing through the novel lens of the pandemic.I argue that the social, cultural, geographic and retail shifts resulting from Covid necessitate a reframing of the discourse on business clothing and require analysis of the constraints that result for WP students, particularly those from migrant and travelling backgrounds, careexperienced, and those from low-income backgrounds.My final section considers the unique occasion of graduation and exposes how this gives rise to a number of difficulties for certain WP categories, particularly given its doubly sartorially demanding requirements of robes and formal attire.

Business attire and disability
According to a recent parliamentary Briefing Paper, the number of students in higher education (HE) with a known disability is increasing, comprising around 17% of the student population in 2019-2020. 13At the same time, disabled people are under-represented in higher education and have worse educational and employment outcomes. 14In general, those with disabilities incur extra costs related to their conditions and have on average lower incomes than their non-disabled peers, disadvantages which are now compounded by the cost-of-living crisis. 15 under-represented in the profession. 16Accordingly, access to professional attire is thus of heightened importance, but there are significant problems in obtaining it.
The Disabled Students' Allowance may be available, but this appears to be focused on extra study costs incurred by disability as opposed to being ring-fenced spending for business attire. 17Regarding choice, suitability and availability, clothing may come with additional costs and considerations for those with disabilities.
There may be heightened sensory issues to consider such as intolerance to certain fabrics or fits.For example, a collar and tie may be unbearable for neurodiverse individuals with heightened sensory perception.Adaptive fastenings may be needed, as well as specific tailoring and alteration to accommodate the contours of a disabled body or the fit of a wheelchair.While the mainstream fashion industry has repeatedly been called out for its narrow parameters, including its widespread failure to include adaptive clothing lines, 18 it remains the case that high-street clothing almost exclusively caters to the able-bodied adult population. 19Indeed, as a recent article in The Guardian noted, there appear to be more lines of clothing for dogs than there are for disabled people. 20 While high-street shops themselves may make efforts to accommodate those with physical disabilities, such as by providing accessible changing rooms, or quiet shopping hours for those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the 2021 UK Disability survey estimates that 78% of respondents were unable to access physical shops and shopping centres. 22Online stores provide some alternatives in terms of range, and there has been a rise in adaptive clothing specialists and even some designer names on board, 23 but these are still on a smaller scale than the high street and tend not to include office wear.Moreover, the 2021 UK Disability survey noted that 98% of the million most visited web pages did not meet accessibility standards, so while there may in principle be more choice of adaptive clothing online, accessing it remains difficult in practice. 24

Gender and business attire
The way in which women specifically are judged on appearance is well known.The relentless and voluble social judgement is readily visible in the Daily Mail's colloquially termed "Sidebar of Shame" which describes the right-hand side column of the newspaper under the title "Femail Today".The sidebar, which is highly classed and racialised, is largely devoted to criticism of how women dress and behave, frequently focusing on their sexual characteristics and how well (or poorly) their clothes reveal them. 25This tacit and complex clothing curriculum is particularly acute for office attire, where women have to make considered sartorial choices in order to balance the tightrope of appearing professional, authoritative and fashionable while not inappropriately sexualised, 26 a concern foregrounded by annual reports of increasing sexual harassment in the profession which appear regularly in the news 27 alongside commentary on how female lawyers might navigate these fraught and freighted choices, such as whether they are expected to wear high heels (a question posed to me annually by female undergraduates), or if they can, as Vardags advise, "ditch the cardigans to look 'discreetly sexy'", aiming for "a Chanel/Dior/ Armani look" but "nothing homespun or homely". 28In 2023 the advice was updated to 22 See UK Government National Disability Strategy explainer <https://disabilityunit.blog.gov.uk/2021/07/28/shopping-national-disability-strategy-explained/> accessed 21 November 2023.

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Above n 22. 25 To the extent that my search engine initially blocked the "sidebar" phrase on the grounds that it was considered to be "adult content". 26 encourage a move away from suits to a high-end private member's nightclub aesthetic, but the hidden curriculum was still evident, as clothing should be: "not scruffy or ungroomed, not hoody-techy . . .not trashy, always in good taste", and formal attire would still be expected for court. 29Yet "taste" is highly classed and gendered, 30 and the need to avoid undesired sexual signalling in the workplace is a serious concern for many women, and particularly those whose faith requires modesty. 31As such, clothing choices for the professional woman are shot through with anxiety, and making the "right" choices requires significant amounts of cultural capital.As observed by Brydon and Niessen: "negotiating dress codes is a nuanced art, informed by shifting patterns of power and authority, play and performance, as well as gender, sexuality, class, ethnicity and race". 32et high-street office wear for women is largely geared towards the youth fast-fashion market, cut to use minimal fabric, and often overly feminising.Choices include blouses, smart tops or women's cut shirts, women's cut trousers and skirts, where sheer or lightweight fabrics and low necklines are a common feature.This is common even for thermal garments, as women's high-street office wear is often designed to reveal the neckline and décolletage and designed for a heated workspace.Read against the background of sexual harassment in the workplace and the need to avoid inappropriate sexualisation, such cuts may be uncomfortable for many, and particularly for those WP students from religious backgrounds where modest attire is required, yet if budgets are limited, these may be the only realistic options.While legal scholars have debated how the gendered expectations of professional legal dress may affect both men and women in different ways, there is broad agreement that authority in the law is typically male, and the standard male business suit of shirt, tie, tailored jacket and trousers becomes symbolic of the law itself. 33In terms of theorising, as a long-standing pattern both figuratively and literally not tailored to fit women, it is difficult to challenge or reformulate.Yet how this translates in practical terms -to concrete purchasing options for WP female students -is arguably complex.As seen above, high-street options may be inappropriately sexualised, while the social, cultural and physical differences between male and female bodies alongside the pre-coded authority of law as heterosexually masculine mean the seemingly obvious solution of wearing a man's suit is not a substitute. 34Collar sizes, shirt profiles and sleeve lengths, jacket shoulder widths, and the cut of trousers are likely to be inappropriate for the female body, whereas the collars of women's shirts are not cut to accommodate a tie, nor are the cuffs routinely designed for cufflinks. 35At the same time, "mannish" suits when worn by women may be coded as signalling butch lesbianism, and, as such, challenging 29 Aishah Hussain, "Suits Out, Sequins In!" (Legal Cheek, 26 January 2023) <https://www.legalcheek.com/2023/01/suits-out-sequins-in-diva-of-divorce-ayesha-vardag-reveals-new-firm-dress-code-which-encourages-lawyersto-express-themselves-with-gold-leather-trousers-scarlet-dr-martens-and-eve/> accessed 21 November 2023.Male teens' suits are also often impractical because of the proportions and cut.While women have for some time been able to wear trousers as part of a professional legal outfit (although such choices are still loaded) there is (unfortunately in my view) much less acceptance of men wearing items traditionally associated with femininity, such as skirts, high heels and blouses.The emergent transgender debate highlights these contradictions, but for reasons of space I cannot explore this fully here.

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It is possible to purchase women's fitted shirts with double cuffs; however, the range is very limited.
THE LAW TEACHER and/or disadvantageous choices in the context of the specifically heteronormatively masculine working environment of the law. 36omen's professional fast fashion is more economical to produce, and using minimal and synthetic materials is better for the quick turnover and tight profit margins of commercial trends as opposed to the more heavyweight and durable fabrics of men's suits.The thin, insubstantial designs typical of women's high-street office attire and footwear fall apart swiftly, occasioning more expenditure, but an economising budget only meeting bare requirements will not reflect this and the student will not be able to "buy their way out".A typical work placement at a commercial firm may be a fortnight long and include several evening events, thus a range of clothing will be required.Given the UK seasons, a warm, officeappropriate overcoat and an umbrella of quality are also often required, as is a smart and durable bag to carry essentials.These seemingly peripheral yet arguably essential items are unlikely to be accounted for in a limited clothing budget.The acquisition of a quality bag would be particularly important for women, given that unlike standard men's tailoring, women's office attire often comes with "faux" pockets.What I term "faux" pockets are pockets suggested by a flap but with no pocket beneath, or a "token" pocket of impractical shallowness, insufficient to carry a phone or keys. 37While carrying core items in male suits may spoil the line, the profiles of a phone and wallet can at least be comfortably accommodated as pockets are always sufficiently deep.With the rise of smartphones and contactless payment, purses (which tend to be longer and bulkier than wallets) are less frequently carried.Cashcards tend to be carried in a phone case, but the dilemma of how to then carry that case, and other essentials such as period products or change of shoes if wearing heels, remains an issue.Cheap fastfashion options are also more suited to the private (and heated) car transport which comes with wealth, as opposed to the long walks and waits in cold, rainy weather at bus stops and train stations that are often the hallmark of the less affluent's transport options, particularly in rural areas where services are already cut to the bone. 38With the more prestigious law firms and higher courts being located in urban areas, and over half the courts in England and Wales closing between 2010 and 2019, this is far from a tangential consideration. 39

Buy, loan or hire? (Fast) fashion, sustainability and class
Why advocate the purchase of new business attire for WP students when it can be loaned or donated through charitable "community wardrobe"-type schemes, hired from commercial outlets, acquired second-hand online or from charity shops?The objections of economy and scalability, and more recently the need to support environmentally sustainable and socially responsible alternatives to raw manufacture appear most compelling when considering how to allocate ever-pressured institutional funds.However, the assumptions that lie behind them require closer interrogation, as they fail to appreciate the complex and nuanced connections between class, wealth, fashion and gender.They also fail to understand the unique role of clothing in the formation of a professional identity and the importance of self-expression in the curation of an authentic self.
From origins in the wartime "make-do-and-mend" culture, there has been a gradual rise in charity shops and online retailers of second-hand clothes, coming to prominence as part of a wider popular culture of "thrift" in the face of the austerity years following the global financial crisis of 2008, 40 and re-emerging in the post-pandemic UK cost-of-living crisis.As a direct response to the crisis, several establishment retailers have now initiated short-term womenswear clothing hire schemes for office parties 41 and in parallel with the renewed focus on economising, there is an increasing social movement towards wanting a greener economy, with growing resistance to the disposable, polluting or non-biodegradable textiles of fast high-street fashion.Particularly when many higher education institutions are looking to boost their sustainability, corporate social responsibility and engagement credentials, 42 any charitable endeavour or scheme encouraging recycling would be likely to be met with approval.It is equally easy to envisage the appeal of plans to reach out to successful alumni and local businesspeople for suit donations to a communal wardrobe, handing down their clothing -and implicitly their success -to the next generation.Any "loan" scheme would enable maximum economy, assisting multiple cohorts over a number of years, and such philanthropic ventures are already well established outside academia and can provide a valuable service of providing suits to jobseekers. 43he turn towards a more circular economy for textiles is often characterised by items being described as "pre-loved", "shabby-chic", "upcycled" or "vintage", such terminology carrying positive connotations. 44However, such interpretations are strongly shaped by class affiliation, and for poorer WP students, the stigma of poverty is all-too-acutely experienced.With charity being associated with the benevolence of the rich, and keenly aware of the associations of poverty with poor quality, a lack of cleanliness and hygiene, poor social judgement and selfportrayal, second-hand clothing is often perceived by the less affluent and marginalised with an anxiety simply unknown to their privileged peers. 45As explained by McRobbie, the embracing of second-hand style is an act of class condescension, of playing at poverty, where those who possess sufficient cultural and economic capital "can risk looking poor and unkempt while their black and working class counterparts dress up to counter the assumptions". 46This is underlined by Comfort's ethnographic work on prisons, where the researcher uncovers that faced with charitable loan clothing, poor visitors would rather go out of their way to purchase cheap but brand new clothing, which, while depleting scarce financial resources, avoids the shame of the hand-me-down. 47Yet even here, this is a game which is difficult to win, as a complex and contradictory web of tacit value judgement is ever at play.Affordable fast-fashion high-street synthetics provided by outlets such as Primark are socially judged as ecologically unsustainable and associated with child labour. 48They are also classed as "chavvy". 49The street name "Primani", a mashup of "Primark" and haute couture label "Armani", acknowledges the (failed) class aspiration in the very moment of its defiance and mockery.Primark's increased presence on the high street, alongside plentiful charity shops and other cheap fashion outlets, is negatively viewed as a signifier of urban dilapidation and lowering of tone/class. 50Hiring from commercial occasion-wear loan schemes avoids the stigma of charity, but business clothes are usually omitted from the schemes, whose emphasis as noted is occasion-wear.The emphasis on women's fashions as opposed to professional attire (which as noted above is not always suitable for office wear with revealing cuts and sheer fabrics) serves to highlight the gendered hidden curriculum of office dressing, where women are expected to have a range of clothes for all occasions, especially social, whereas men are not similarly judged.If WP students are truly to be able to participate, their clothing budgets must reflect the true range of apparel required.Even while not judged on variety, men's off-the-peg fashion-cut suits and smartcasual apparel are increasingly subject to social appraisal, as seen in the contemporary skinny-fit trend, which can be culturally read as signalling a lack of intelligence, sophistication and gravitas, but which may be the only practical option for a WP student on a limited budget. 51Yet even here, it is not just money but also -and crucially -the hidden curriculum of sartorial knowledge that is essential to avoid such judgement, as seen in the current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's tight-cut suit being widely mocked, despite it being bespoke and costing in the region of £2000. 52hen considering clothing loan schemes and vintage apparel, the values of sustainability and eco-credentialism often come with a price premium, as seen in charity shop finds increasingly costing more than virgin textiles, and "green" goods sold at significant cost.As observed by McGuigan: "cool capitalism is largely defined by the incorporation of signs of disaffection and resistance to capitalism itself, thereby contributing to the reproduction of the system and reducing opposition to it". 53As such, "living sustainably" becomes a pastiche of poverty, inextricably connected with cultural and economic capital, and affordable only for a few.While loan of clothing or an economising budget helps the most WP students at the cheapest cost, it is arguable that for all the reasons above, this a false economy.While all institutional budgets will necessarily be limited, borrowing from the language of contract law, it is important that the difference is appreciated between sufficiency, which meets the bare minimum need, and adequacy, which represents full value.In the economy of clothing, cheapness in cost risks judgements of low value in the wearer, and institutional budgets should appreciate this.Facilitating the purchase and ownership of new, high-quality clothing also crucially permits a greater element of control over style identity -an identity which for poorer WP students, with scarcer time and financial resources than their wealthier peers, is harder to curate from the limited secondhand market or clothing loan scheme. 54Clothing is not just access-enabling but, importantly for WP students, status-conferring: to freely choose and own one's business attire is an important exercise of agency and self-expression which validates the wearer as an authentic professional and signals to them that they are worthy of quality and expenditure.

Covid and clothing: the influence of the pandemic
In the UK, the near-universal lockdown of the pandemic permitted only a narrowly defined set of keyworkers to leave the house for employment purposes.The remainder of the workforce was to remain indoors. 55As the traditional boundaries between home and office collapsed, work had to be conducted remotely, domestically and often chaotically.At first glance, the sudden pivot to online working from home appeared to render 51 This judgement was amply revealed in press coverage of four young men whose photo of them posing on a night out in tight trousers went viral and gave rise to numerous negative (and entirely baseless) judgements of their being stupid and racist.See Tom Ambrose, "Four Lads in that Viral Meme Receive Outrageous Abuse Based on Their Appearance" The Mirror (London, 17 January 2021) <www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/fourlads-viral-meme-receive-23333533> accessed 21 November 2023.On men's suits and fashion compare Anne Hollander, Sex and Suits: The Evolution of Modern Dress (Bloomsbury 2016).52 See eg Rory Tingle, "Why Doesn't Rishi Sunak Buy Suits That Fit?" (MailOnline, 2 August 2023) <www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12364069/Why-doesnt-Rishi-Sunak-buy-suits-fit-Mens-fashion-expert-baffled-5ft7in-Prime-Ministers-attempt-look-trendy-ankle-skimming-tailoring-says-Noughties-want-trousers-back.html>accessed 21 November 2023.Rules were often complex, chronically unclear, and frequently changed over time with much regional and national variation.For a summary see The Institute for Government, "Timeline of UK Government Coronavirus Lockdowns and Restrictions" <https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/data-visualisation/timeline-coronavirus-lockdowns> accessed 21 November 2023.On the related laws see "Coronavirus: A History of English Lockdown Laws" (House of Commons Library Briefing Paper) <https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9068/#:~:text=This%20briefing%20uses%20the%20term,detailed%20discussion%20of %20these%20laws> accessed 21 November 2023.
business attire irrelevant, but it is arguable that the reality is more complex.In terms of attire, the pandemic disproportionately affected WP law students in a number of ways and continues to do so.First, far from rendering office wear irrelevant, the pandemic served paradoxically to underline and amplify the importance of the suit as the signifier par excellence of the professional in an increasingly online or hybrid working environment; second, through a change in the retail environment causing a reduction in the range of outfitters; and third, through the loss of social opportunities that would normally occasion the foundations of a first formal wardrobe.
Regarding the shift to online working, while receiving less attention than the healthcare sector, the legal sector was also designated a core public service and the business of lawyering continued throughout the pandemic.As stated in March 2020 by the then Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland QC, it was vital to the rule of law and administration of justice that courts should sit. 56While much civil and family work was rapidly switched online and carried out remotely, a network of priority courts was established which represented almost half of the justice estate.Courts were divided into those open to the public for essential hearings, those staffed but not open to the public, and the remainder being temporarily closed.
The significance of these shifts lies in the fact that the practice of law is performative.The spatial arrangement and architecture of the court; the bodywork of lawyering; the subtle movements and gestures; the costume of the performance as court dress and formal suits: all of these form part of the complex choreography of tacit signals that help us to triangulate a person's role in a professional legal hierarchy. 57Those at the margins in this role play feel that hierarchy the keenest and are well aware of the role that dress and these other non-verbal cues play in signalling their professionalism, as seen for example by black barristers having to wear suits of exaggerated smartness so as not to be confused with the defendant or other non-court personnel, while wearing wigs not created for Afro-Caribbean hair. 58Thus the role of the suit was already marked as an important signifier of professionalism, but arguably it became not invisible or irrelevant, but rather hypervisible as one of the few remaining markers of authority and professionalism in the context of online working.The narrowing bandwidth of signals and cues available in an online environment made it even more difficult to announce class, rank and status, with the existing signifiers amplified in importance as a result.The Ministry of Justice's own guidelines drew attention to the digital divide and the risk of social barriers being exaggerated by online working, noting that negative assumptions should not be made about how those in the digital court were dressed, nor about the impoverished surroundings that the cameras might now reveal. 59or marginalised and poor WP students, increasingly faced with having to launch their career in a hybrid or even purely online working environment, the importance of a good suit becomes even more acute.
Obtaining that suit post-pandemic, however, is not straightforward.How the retail environment affects WP students more negatively than their peers has been explored in the context of gender above, but the pandemic arguably caused specific repercussions that here relate to class, social position and affluence.The unexpected liberation from the dress codes (both explicit and tacit) of the office, which saw traditional white-collar workers immediately reassess their wardrobe, had, in turn, an impact on clothing manufacturers and retail outlets. 60More comfortable clothing suited the new "working from home" environment; certain well-known retail chains specialising in suits such as TM Lewin and Brooks Bros closed stores or filed for bankruptcy in that period, sales of "athleisure" wear rose exponentially 61 and speculation grew that this would effectively mean the end of the suit as an unexpected corollary of losing the office. 62As argued above, it did precisely the opposite, but while menswear outlets had already been reporting shifting preferences towards smart separates prior to the pandemic with the increasing trend of "dress-down Fridays", 63 the pandemic turn of leisurewear as the main mode of daily attire meant that even established retailers such as Marks and Spencer radically reduced their already-depleted menswear offerings. 64For WP students of limited means, and increasingly so post-pandemic, this reduces their options yet further, and inevitably channels them into the cheap high-street or online retail options, with the attendant disadvantages as discussed above.
A final key consequence of the pandemic is that young people living through lockdown have been denied the traditional rites of passage that might normally trigger their first acquisition of formal adult attire, which -crucially -often serves as the foundation of their first professional wardrobe.The pandemic meant that for a broad range of adolescents now entering university, there were none of the usual social and cultural moments that mark one's sartorial coming-of-age.There were no 18th birthday parties or school-leavers proms, and weddings were either prohibited or severely curtailed. 65While the 67% increase in mortality caused a massive rise in funerals, Covid restrictions meant that around 9.7 million people were unable to attend. 66eing shut out or distanced from family occasions may disproportionately affect WP students from care-experienced and estranged backgrounds in any case, but while the more affluent can now afford to recoup this loss, when set against the background of the consequent cost-of-living crisis, formal attire arguably slips lower down the list of priority purchases for WP students from lower socio-economic backgrounds.Moreover, given the pandemic shift in retail trends from office wear to athleisure and the closure or scaling back of traditional suit retailers as noted above, there are now even fewer outlets to acquire affordable office wear from.For low-income WP men especially, where the acquisition of one good suit serves a multitude of purposes throughout one's life, the negative effects of the loss are thus compounded.For low-income WP women, the common cultural expectation of needing a wide variety of workwear also leads to difficulty if a wardrobe is limited. 67nder the "Everyone In" pandemic scheme, £3.2 million of government funding was provided to support emergency accommodation for rough sleepers and those vulnerably housed, but it is estimated that at least 130,000 households in England were made homeless despite the ban on evictions, with those in family breakdown and violent situations particularly affected. 68While the ban on evictions has since ended, 69 the resulting cost-of-living crisis makes the acquisition of work attire even less of a justifiable expense for those WP students with minimal wardrobes who are insecurely housed and transient, with the limited storage of lockers, tents, cars, boats and caravans, and limited laundry facilities. 70Such difficulties can only be exacerbated by the fact that at the very same moment, the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 has created a new criminal offence prohibiting residing on land without consent in or with a vehicle, even if the residence is intended to be temporary. 71

Graduation regalia and business/formal attire
The graduation ceremony marks the zenith of the academic journey.The visual display of graduation cannot be overstated: it is often an acutely stylised and symbolic ritual of pomp and splendour by the institution.In a clear echo of formal national occasions such as the State Opening of Parliament, the insignia of high office such as maces are paraded while university dignitaries and distinguished visitors observe, often to a backdrop of buglers, halberdiers, string quartets and a master of ceremonies to oversee the proceedings: an event which could not be more heavily imbued with classed distinction.Yet while the precise formats of ceremonies may vary, all are hallmarked by singular sartorial requirements.To be formally enrobed is mandatory: specific clothing uniquely signals this crowning moment of achievement.Each university has its own proprietary version of formal academic regalia, with different materials and hues denoting individual institutions. 72The fabrics and colours are far from accidental.Luxury materials such as fur, wool, silk, satin and velvet are used to signal elite status. 73This is particularly so for honorary and postgraduate awards, for example PhD robes at Durham University are specified as "Gown: Full dress: Scarlet cassimere, faced with scarlet silk, bound on the inside edge with palatinate silk one inch wide.Hood: Scarlet cassimere, lined with scarlet silk, and bound on all edges with palatinate silk one inch wide". 74The messages are often reinforced by prestige colours like gold, scarlet and purple, and ornate embellishments such as gimp braiding,  The precise style also varies according to degree, for example the Tudor "tam" or bonnet-style velvet cap of the PhD differs from the plainer mortarboard or Oxford cap of the undergraduate.Here again, clothing design and fabric signal clearly status and hierarchy.

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Real fur is unlikely to be encountered nowadays (see eg Corporate Social Responsibility -Ede & Ravenscroft <edeandravenscroft.com>),but wool and silk are standard robing fabrics, which may be problematic for vegan students.While I do not count vegans as part of the WP spectrum, a wider point of inclusivity is relevant in that it would be welcome if more synthetic alternatives were available.74 University Calendar: Academic Dress -Durham University.Cassimere is a type of high-quality woollen cloth; palatinate silk is a light purple hue of silk uniquely associated with the university.Universities are remarkable in that they have "official" pantone colours, often referencing historic regional links.
frogging and tassels. 75What is worn underneath is equally significant, as smart dress is widely expected to underline the dignity and formality of the ceremony. 76s it requires both robes and formal attire, graduation is thus a doubly demanding sartorial occasion, and as such gives rise to disproportionate burdens for certain WP students. 77If formal attire is not already owned, it is expected to be acquired for this occasion and as noted above, the stigma of poverty attaches to borrowed clothes from communal "charity" stock.Whereas men's dress suits can be hired commercially, which brings a cost consideration in itself, there is a dearth of equivalent options for hiring women's formal attire. 78As I will explain below, this is significant as the choice of female garments brings additional considerations in the context of graduation.
Unlike formal attire, graduation robes will almost certainly not already be owned.Unless one is entering into a career in academia, graduation robes are normally required only once in a lifetime and, as specific to degrees and institutions, are not transferrable to any other occasion. 79While the high cost of purchase for what is essentially singleuse attire is prohibitive for most students in any case, these factors make such expenditure particularly difficult to justify for those WP students who are financially constrained, or for care-leavers and those estranged from their families, who may be unable to draw on the familial financial support that might otherwise be forthcoming for such an occasion. 80Notwithstanding the general objections to loan and hire outlined above, for academic robes this mode of acquisition is the norm and in principle makes more financial sense, but universities often require robes to be hired from a very narrow pool of official suppliers. 81Even with university discounts for hire from preferred establishments, this means that cost can still be a prohibitive factor for some WP students.The unique nature of robes and highly limited number of suppliers also mean that there is no significant or functional second-hand market to source from.Nor are there 75 Gimp braiding is a narrow and flat ornamental type of edging.Frogging describes ornamental braid-andbutton fastenings.76 I write in the context of UK universities, but for reasons of space cannot properly address regional formal dress, although here the same issues of cost and affordability can be further magnified where authentically produced, clan-specific Scottish, Irish or Welsh tartan may be of paramount personal importance.As pleated and wrapped garments, kilts use a lot of fabric; a full 10-yard kilt alone (aside from sporran, penanular brooch, sgian-dubh, ghillie brogues, kilt socks and tartan flashes) may cost £400.See further Megan Blakely, "Pattern Recognition: Governmental Regulation of Tartan and Commodification of Culture" (2015) 22 International Journal of Cultural Property 487.77 Universities do not generally specify academic dress for other events such as exams.Oxford and Cambridge are exceptional, having multiple occasions on the academic calendar requiring an appropriate (non-graduation) academic robe (for example Commoners', Scholars' or Advanced) as well as sub fusc which has specific requirements of the clothing worn underneath, for example a dark suit with "white bow tie, black bow tie, black full-length tie, or black ribbon"."Academic Dress" University of Oxford <https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/ academic/dress> accessed 21 November 2023.

78
Options are now emerging but as noted above these are largely couture "partywear" options, and not office wear as such. 79As noted above, robes differ with degree and institution, thus are not recyclable.They must be hired specifically for each occasion.

80
At the time of writing the domestic cost-of-living crisis means that the costs of a graduation event are more acutely felt by those who may have to forfeit already-low wages to attend, as well as transport and sustenance costs.As three years of pandemic cohorts graduated simultaneously in 2022, accommodation costs in university towns were even more inflated than usual.affordable generic high-street equivalents as there is no mass market for such singular garments.The nearest available commercial versions are "cos-play" mock graduation robes, but these will simply not substitute, being of incorrect fabrics and colours. 82Even if the outlay for hire can be accommodated or provided free for WP students, the issues of cost and design (discussed below) of what is required underneath remain.The design of robes themselves can be also problematic for certain WP groups.As formal garments closely modelled on eleventh-century clerical wear, graduation robes are not designed with disabled bodies in mind.While length and cap size can be specified, robes cannot be tailored to fit better if hired.While some more modern robes use additional Velcro patches to adhere hoods to gowns, the traditional design is that hoods attach by a flat "v"-shaped piece of fabric which lies over the collarbones, fastening to an upper-middle shirt button using a small loop.The wearing of a straight tie with the shirt conceals the attachment point and gives a more visually streamlined appearance.This arrangement anchors and centres the garment, allowing it to rest symmetrically and comfortably over the shoulders of the gown and supporting the (not-inconsiderable) weight, length and volume of the coloured lining at the wearer's back.However, the lining is the most important part of the display and designed to be viewed at fullest when the wearer is standing.If the wearer is a wheelchair user, the volume of the hood may be difficult to accommodate, and the lining may be less visible, if at all.The design of robes also has a direct impact on what is worn underneath, as the loop-and-button fastening and breadth of the gown effectively favour the traditional man's suit to be worn underneath, which may be read through a (hetero)sexualised lens as being potentially butch or "mannish" when worn by a woman. 83The traditional design of the hood and gown means that without the broad and heavily structured shoulders of a man's suit underneath, the gown's yoke tends to sit less comfortably and securely on the shoulders. 84The placement of the hood's anchor point at the upper-mid shirt button means that even if a woman is wearing a buttoned shirt, the weight of the hood can often force the buttons to gape (or worse, unfasten) precisely at the bustline, something that even the (unlikely) wearing of a tie may not conceal.While increasingly the tie has been appropriated as a more "gender fluid" item, as perhaps the most symbolically masculine item of clothing it has long been subverted by butch lesbians and is arguably still culturally read as such when worn by less stereotypically feminine 82 In addition to the standard (ie non-sexualised) dressing-up items, women's fetish wear graduation robes can also be purchased online.Needless to say, these are manifestly unsuitable, but their mere existence further underlines my point about the constant sexualisation of women though clothing.See further Matthew Champion, "Women with Actual PhDs Review 'Sexy PhD Costume' on Amazon" (indy100, 1 November 2014) <www.indy100.com/viral/women-with-actual-phds-review-sexy-phd-costume-on-amazon-7250616>accessed 21 November 2023.

83
Upon graduating in 1997, I was the only woman to wear a shirt and tie in my ceremony.When researching Ede and Ravenscroft's website for this article, I found none of the women in the sample graduation photos were wearing ties.In contrast, every man depicted was wearing either a bow tie or a straight tie.This echoed (bow tie excepted) staff depicted on most large law firms' websites.Thomas Fink and Yong Mao's seminal work on ties (The 85 Ways to Tie a Tie (Fourth Estate 1994)) discusses the tie almost exclusively as menswear, depicting only one example of a woman, Marlene Dietrich, wearing a tie.84 Some women's jackets do have shoulder pads but while shoulder pads on men's suit jackets come as standard, women's shoulder pads are very much subject to fashion.The positioning of buttons on a women's jacket with shoulder pads may still be a problem as discussed, and women's shoulder pads in themselves are an aspect of gendered tailoring.See further Kevin Almond, "An Analysis of the Shoulder Pad in Female Fashion" (2019) 6 Fashion, Style and Popular Culture 31.
women, which makes it a more "loaded" fashion choice than other accessories. 85 man's shirt may be unsuitable owing to the collar measurement and dimensions 86 while women's buttoned blouses, often made of lighter, thinner fabric than men's and lacking a tie-cut collar, also lack the rigidity, design and structure that would otherwise help to both support the hood and -crucially -avoid gaping.A buttoned jacket may be used, but the buttons may be too low, purely decorative and thus insecure, too large for the loop (which is designed for a smaller shirt-button) or non-existent.Wearing a top or dress with no buttons, which is common for smart womenswear, avoids the problem of gaping, but means that the hood is then completely unanchored and continually prone to capsize over one or both shoulders, as well as riding up the neck to suddenly choke the wearer without warning.The only solution, other than constant (and irritating) adjustment is to use safety pins, which are likely to ruck and damage sheer fabrics, and stab the wearer in coming undone.While in principle traditional clothing from other countries may be worn underneath graduation robes and even encouraged by universities as a welcome sign of diversity, the practicalities of graduation robes being designed to fit the Western-style suit as described above may make such clothing choices less practical in the event.If graduation robes were to be redesigned, which is arguably easy to do without losing the colours, fabrics and symbolism of what they represent, all would be free to wear their smart clothing of choice underneath, without having to choose between wearing a suit when this was not desired, or ruining their clothes.

Drawing together the threads
This article has sought to add to widening participation scholarship by demonstrating how an under-researched aspect of it, namely professional clothing, can play a crucial part in enabling our most marginalised students to become confident legal professionals.It has argued that professional dress should form a key part of the wider conversation about widening participation in law schools, acknowledging its role as a vital precursor to entry into the profession and noting its role as part of a "hidden curriculum" where some more than others have literacy in the complex semiotics of clothing, but not all have means of redressing their lack.Taking an interdisciplinary approach and drawing on scholarship from sociology, cultural studies, gender studies and fashion and textile studies, I have sought to argue that WP students must have parity of access with their non-WP peers to the correct clothing, and have aimed to describe the multiple, complex and 85 See further Kim Johnson and others, "Can Professional Women Appear Too Masculine?The Case of the Necktie" (1994) 12(2) Clothing and Textiles Research 27.While periodically reappearing as a women's fashion trend (see eg 2020 Area, Marc Jacobs and Yves Saint Laurent Spring/Summer collections), this is carefully presented as being worn by stereotypically feminine-presenting women, such that the tie works to enhance, rather than subvert, femininity.On the more recent association of the tie with colonialism see Lorinda Cramer, "The Politics of the Necktie -'Colonial Noose', Masculine Marker or Silk Status Symbol?" (The Conversation, 15 February 2021) <https://theconversation.com/the-politics-of-the-necktie-colonial-noose-masculine-marker-or-silkstatus-symbol-155203>; <www.vogue.co.uk/miss-vogue/article/shirt-and-tie-fashion-trend> accessed 21 November 2023.86 It may also be undesirable, given the connotations discussed above.My own experience as a 5ˊ2˝ female of slight Asian build in buying men's shirts has been most telling.I was assured by one retailer that a collar size of 16 inches would indeed fit perfectly.In the event there was room for a friend.On sizing and fit, see further C De Camargo, "A Uniform Not Uniform: An Ethnography of Police Clothing, Performance, Gender and Subculture in Neighbourhood Policing" (Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Salford 2016).
intersectional ways in which they may be excluded or disadvantaged in that acquisition.Understanding this can then inform solutions to that problem.I have argued that disabled students lack parity of access in terms of choice, availability and tailoring, and that gender expectations and office attire give rise to a multitude of issues in relation to disadvantage.I have noted how loan schemes and the discourse of sustainability in fast fashion fail to appreciate the complex connections between class, wealth, fashion and gender, and I have drawn attention to the perhaps surprising but arguably significant repercussions of the pandemic on the discourse and landscape of fashion and retail, and the implications of this for certain WP groups, in that at the very moment where business attire becomes even more important in signalling professionalism, it becomes less available to those in financial distress.Finally, I describe the multiple burdens occasioned by graduation, where specific sartorial requirements, design and tailoring have compounded disadvantages for certain constituencies.Graduation robes themselves are clearly in need of some redesigning to accommodate a wider range of graduands, and ideally this article will catalyse a conversation between universities and robing houses to start that process.Funding packages must appreciate the complex ways in which various WP constituents can be affected by a lack of access to formal attire and restricted avenues of acquisition.They must be sensitive to different needs in clothing, such as providing for garments which may require adaptive tailoring, appropriate accessories, and which must be of adequate quality so that WP students may enjoy the prestige that professional clothing brings.
Overall, I have sought to argue that clothing plays a unique role in signalling professionalism, in that clothing must be recognised as status-conferring; a unique expression of self-identity and lying at the core of articulating and projecting the professional self.A critical extension and expression of the self, it is highly personal, and freighted with value and meaning: As Lurie notes, "to choose clothes . . . is to define and describe ourselves". 87As such, choice and ownership are essential.Quality is also essential, as while economy of spend is prima facie understandable, unlike other access-enabling items such as train fares and laptops, where the cheapest or more economical choice will perform the same function as a more expensive version, the complex cultural economy of clothing means, for the reasons which I have outlined in the article, that higher quality attire is simply not interchangeable with cheaper and often flimsier options.Not all will agree with the current social and cultural coding of what is appropriate or acceptable in a contemporary office environment, but exposing these contradictions can catalyse conversation with the professions with a view to their alteration.As this article has sought to show, there is much room for critique on numerous grounds, such as gendered sartorial double standards and the coding of certain fits and fabrics as unprofessional, but nonetheless, it is likely to be this environment which our WP students will be confronted with, and their access must be facilitated in the meantime.It is important that we have conversations with our students, particularly those from WP backgrounds, in discussing the hidden sartorial curriculum attached to it.While we might excel at giving guidance on interview technique, problem solving, or writing CVs, what 87 Lurie (n 2) 5.
explicit conversations are we having with our students on, for example, whether to wear heels or flats, brown shoes, whether trainers are appropriate, what outfits and colour palettes might be suitable for an interview? 88Crucially, for our WP students, what practical steps are we taking to ensure that they have access to parity of adequate clothing choices with their non-WP peers, and will budgets take into account the true cost of a professional wardrobe beyond a basic and ill-cut high-street fashion suit, including the wider peripherals or adaptive tailoring that may be needed?Moreover, giving the student control of the budget is key.The ability to choose one's own clothing is a vital expression of self and exercise of agency which WP students are as deserving of as any other, and while clothing banks, suit rental and loan may appear to be both benevolent and economic, my argument has been that the stigma of poverty associated with "hand-me-downs" and "charity" is more keenly felt by those who are economically disadvantaged than those who are not, adding force to my conclusion that our WP students are worthy of reasonable as opposed to least expenditure and that their being enabled to purchase business attire of quality and of their own choice is, in and of itself, an essential part of widening participation.

3A
growing body of work now exists on fashion in general and in particular its "hidden curriculum" role in professional success; see for example Susana M Carlos and EmmaLee Pallai, "The Codification of a Professional: Addressing the Hidden Curriculum in Public Health" (2021) 7 Pedagogy in Health Promotion 341.For its role in law see further Richard Collier, "'Nutty Professors', 'Men in Suits' and 'New Entrepreneurs': Corporeality, Subjectivity and Change in the Law School and Legal Practice" (1998) 7 S&LS 27; Fiona Cownie, "'Dressing the Part': Gender, Performance and the Culture of the Law School" (2006) 57 NILQ 557; Margaret Thornton, Dissonance and Distrust: Women in the Legal Profession (OUP 1996).At the time of writing in 2023, a glance at the websites of the five UK Magic Circle law firms confirms this image.See further Richard Collier, "'Be Smart, Be Successful, Be Yourself . . .?Representations of the Training Contract and Trainee Solicitor in Advertising by Large Law Firms" (2005) 12 International Journal of the Legal Profession 51.

30
Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (Routledge Classics 2010).31 Alison Guy and Maura Banim, "Personal Collections: Women's Clothing Use and Identity" (2000) 9 Journal of Gender Studies 313.32 Brydon and Niessen (n 9).33 See eg the debates between Collier, Thornton and Cownie (n 3). 34

36
See Lori Rifkin, "The Suit Suits Whom?Lesbian Gender, Female Masculinity, and Women-In-Suits"(2002) 6 Journal of Lesbian Studies 157; Marc Mason, Steven Vaughan and Benjamin Weil, "The Possible Forms of Professionalism: Credibility and the Performance of Queer Sexualities among Barristers in England and Wales" (2023) 50 JL&S 77.37 Pockets may be provisionally stitched up to prevent the line of the pocket going wavy (my thanks to Josh K at Slater Menswear Preston for enlightening me on this point), but in womenswear particularly, pockets are faux thus effectively absent.See further Chelsea Summers, "The Politics of Pockets" (Vox Magazine, 19 September 2016) <www.vox.com/2016/9/19/12865560/politics-of-pockets-suffragettes-women>accessed 21 November 2023.38An estimated quarter of bus routes have been lost in England in the last decade, and according to the charity Campaign to Protect Rural England, nearly a million residents are considered as living in "transport deserts".See "Transport Deserts Report 2020" (CPRE).Rural areas are also more likely to be affected by fuel and food poverty, exacerbated by the pandemic; see eg Jon May and others, "Still Bleeding: The Variegated Geographies of Austerity and Food Banking in Rural England and Wales" (2020) 79 Journal of Rural Studies 409.39 Seventy-seven more courts are planned to close by 2025/26: see further The Law Society, "Court Closures" (2022) <https://www.iclr.co.uk/blog/commentary/the-secret-magistrate-on-how-budget-cuts-and-court-clo sures-are-affecting-the-morale-of-the-magistracy/> accessed 21 November 2023; National Audit Office, Transforming Courts and Tribunals <https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Transforming-Courts-and-Tribunals.pdf>accessed 21 November 2023.

70
See further Katharine Quarmby, No Place to Call Home: Inside the Real Lives of Gipsies and Travellers (OneWorld Publications 2013) where a lack of laundry facilities at certain campsites is particularly flagged up as an issue.71 Section 83, which inserts the new offences into the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (Part 5, s 60C).See also Ella Hopkins, "Homeless People Sleeping in Cars or Tents Could Be Committing a Criminal Offence" (Each Other Charity, 12 May 2022) <https://eachother.org.uk/homeless-people-sleeping-in-cars-or-tents-couldbe-committing-a-criminal-offence/>accessed 21 November 2023. 72 and refugees/asylum seekers.While acknowledging that WP categories often intersect, for clarity of structure 8 My literature review reveals an emergent body of work in general on widening participation in law; see eg Anil Balan, "Addressing the Challenges of Teaching Legal Ethics to Take Account of the Widening Participation Agenda" (2019) 53 The Law Teacher 263; Peter Moraitis and Helen Murphy, "Language, Law and Identity: A Language and Learning Response to the Challenges of Widening Participation of Students in Law Subjects" (2013) 47 The Law Teacher 159; Ben Waters, "Widening Participation in Higher Education: The Legacy for Legal Education" (2013) 47 The Law Teacher 261; but this tends to focus on pedagogical issues, questions of belonging, how the curriculum and universities can be more effective in widening participation and similar.I could find no sustained academic discussion that focused on professional attire as a main theme.9 Anne Brydon and Sandra Niessen (eds), Consuming Fashion: Adorning the Transnational Body (Berg 1998) ix. 10 See Advance HE, "Widening Participation and Equality" <www.advance-he.ac.uk/guidance/equality-12A further category of Showmen and Boaters is recognised, and sometimes also included in university materials; see eg Coventry University <www.coventry.ac.uk/research/research-directories/current-projects/2023/boatersand-showmen-influencing-policy-and-the-grtsb-schools-and-he-pledge-through-their-cultural-heritage/> accessed 21 November 2023.See also Northumbria University, Natalie Forster and others, "Representations of Gypsy, Traveller, Roma, Showmen and Boater Communities in Higher Education Widening Participation Discourse" (Final Report) as cited at <www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/equality-and-diversity/edi-activities /initiatives/gtrsb-pledge/> accessed 21 November 2023.
Technology and Education 77.An exception is emerging for schoolchildren; see for example Marks and Spencer's range of Kids Easy Dressing for children with hip dysplasia, feeding tube clothing and zip bodysuits <www.marksandspencer.com/l/kids/easy-dressing>accessed 21 November 2023, and ASDA's adaptive school uniform range for children with special needs <https://direct.asda.com/george/collections/easy-on-easy-wearschool/D28M110G1C3,default,sc.html>accessed 21 November 2023.20 Frances Ryan, "Why Are There More Clothing Lines for Dogs than Disabled People?"The Guardian (London, 18 June 2018) <www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jun/18/why-are-there-more-clothing-lines-for-dogs-than-disabled-people> accessed 21 November 2023.21 See Imogen Tyler, "'Chav Mum Chav Scum': Class Disgust in Contemporary Britain" (2008) 8 Feminist Media Studies 17.
"Cost of Living: University Students 'Priced Out' of Graduation" (BBC News)<https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-6205404> accessed 21 November 2023.Wippell Graduation Gown & Robe Hire) <wippellgownhire.co.uk>; <www.edeandravenscroft.com/> accessed 21 November 2023.Ede and Ravenscroft are specialist legal tailors.The fact that the profession has its own tailors is telling in and of itself, further underlining the linkage between formal dress and the law.