Peers' Robes
Peers wear two different ceremonial outfits: their coronation robes, and their parliamentary robes. Both designs date back at least 400 years, and both are designed to reveal a peer’s rank to those ‘in the know’. As peers have handed their robes down from parent to child through the generations, Ede and Ravenscroft has also passed the baton of creating and taking care of these robes, from artisan tailor to apprentice, since its early days in the 17th century.
Peers' Coronation Robes
Despite their splendour, coronation robes rarely get an outing. They're exclusively reserved for coronations, so they have only been worn 12 times in the last 300 years. Even so, most people instantly recognise the crimson robes and coronets as being the clothes of a noble. They are made from crimson silk velvet, trimmed with white ermine and rows of black sealskin spots. These rows extend around the full width of the cape, with half rows extending from the right front edge to the centre back. Far more than mere decoration, these rows of spots actually reveal the peer's rank. The ranks are as follows:
- Duke 4 rows
- Marquess 3 1/2 rows
- Earl 3 rows
- Viscount 2 1/2 rows
- Baron 2 rows
