Elinor Carucci was commissioned by TIME to photograph the collection of collars that had become a celebrated and distinguishing feature of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg over the course of her remarkable career. Carucci was granted special access to a selection of Ginsburg's most cherished collars at the Supreme Court. Her images were published alongside details about each collar from Ginsburg's family, in a feature titled, "Portraits of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Favorite Collars and the Stories Behind Them," by Tessa Berenson.
As Berenson writes, "Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an American icon. The late Justice, who died on September 18, 2020 at the age of 87, was only the second woman to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, and a trailblazing feminist who enshrined equal protections for women into the law…. Over time, Ginsburg's collars came to symbolize more than just a long-overdue feminine energy on the Supreme Court. To her, each one developed a special significance. The style of the collar sometimes reflected the substance of her work; perhaps most famously, the liberal Ginsburg often wore a bejeweled collar that looked like armor on days she dissented."