The question is, did Betty Jackson speak to the Lord Chief Justice only when she was asked to? We hope not for her sake, because dragging England's judiciary into the sartorial 21st century is enough of a challenge without watching your Ps and Qs. Thinking about it logically, maybe Jackson enjoyed the enforced silence. It would certainly explain how she got so many changes through. For the record, she has binned the wig, the Harry Potter gowns and all those bumptious winged collars. Nice cull, we say.

Jackson was asked to reassess the garb of our country's civil and family judges after being asked by a friend, the wife of a Court of Appeal judge. Jackson took the job and did not ask for a wage. Considering the large sums of money that change hands in the fashion industry today, this is very honourable, your honour. Jackson's northern work ethic is clearly still in tact.

Born in Lancashire in 1949, she studied fashion at Birmingham College of Art before setting up her eponymous fashion label in 1981 with her husband and business partner, David Cohen. Always interested in artists and painters, she was particularly inspired by Frida Kahlo's 1940 Self-Portrait. “It is so strong and defiant and yet vulnerable. In the Eighties, a group of us used to dress in mannish suits as homage to Frida.” Today Jackson still wears an androgynous uniform of black tunics and trousers.

There is never a spare seat at Jackson's colourful shows. The editors don't go to observe the radical or avant garde. They go to see lovely clothes, which most of them probably buy because, unlike her contemporaries' collections, Jackson's wares don't require a second mortgage. There's that old Lancashire thriftiness again. And talking of money, the judicial robes are another economic triumph. As each gown costs £500, it is estimated that there will be £200,000 annual savings. So great is the cutback that the judges will now get a replacement every decade; until now they have been given one for life.

Model judge and his funky new gown

From October, judges in civil and family cases will dressed by a designer whose trademark is 'funky British clothes'

• Crime against authority? Case dismissed!

Back in Jackson's fashion world, her turnover of clothes is decidedly quicker. She designs the main collection twice a year and also presides over the cheaper Betty Jackson Two range. There is also a clothing and homeware range for Debenhams. Certainly successful, but at what price? “Being an artist demands total sacrifice, which is sometimes hard for a woman because of the feelings of guilt we experience,” she says.

Having been involved in an horrific car crash in the early 1970s, Jackson walks with a limp and is never seen without her wooden stick. This is probably why she believes that “most people feel much more confident and sexy if they are comfortable”.

The Lord Chief Justice was certainly happy with the comfort factor. And he liked the easy-to-undo poppers, too. Perhaps this is as close to sexiness as you get in the courts.