Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s collars symbolized more than just a long-overdue feminine energy on the Supreme Court. To her, each one developed a special significance.

After Ginsburg’s death, TIME was granted access to some of the late Justice’s favorite collars https://ti.me/39pVZ3t 

Ginsburg received this collar as a gift in late 2019 or early 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. It was one of her recent favorites; she said it was “elegant.”

A fellow at the Georgetown University Law Center bought this “Pride collar” for the Justice from a bead weaver in Ecuador. Ginsburg first wore it on the bench in 2016—she was a champion of LGBTQ rights during her career.

Ginsburg received the famous “dissent collar” in a swag bag at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards in 2012. She said with a smile in an interview with Katie Couric in 2014: “It looks fitting for dissent.”

This was one of Ginsburg’s original lace jabots, which she wore frequently on the bench from 1993 to 2008. She also wore it in the official Court group photos in 2001, 2003, 2009 and 2010.

Ginsburg was given this seashell collar by the University of Hawaii when she was a jurist in residence in 2017.

This South African collar was Ginsburg’s favorite of all. She wore it in multiple Court photos, in her own official portrait now hanging at the Supreme Court, and on the cover of TIME.

Ginsburg was a huge opera fan, and this collar is a copy of one worn by Placido Domingo. It was from a production of “Stiffelio” at the Metropolitan Opera, and when Ginsburg admired it, the Met gave it to her.

This beaded collar from South America was the last collar Ginsburg wore in her lifetime, at a wedding she officiated on August 30, 2020.

Ginsburg wore this collar several times during her final term on the bench, and it was the collar she wore after her death while lying in repose at the Court and lying in state at the Capitol in September 2020.

All of Ginsburg’s former law clerks gave her this collar at a reunion in 2018. The collar’s inner neck line is embroidered with a quote from her late husband Marty Ginsburg: “It’s not sacrifice, it’s family.” Each layer on the piece refers to a member of the Ginsburg family.

See the entire series with text by @tcberenson and photographs by Elinor Carucci here https://ti.me/2V4HzwV