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Perhaps another interesting question is why they are robed in the colours of Gandalf. After all, much is made of Gandalf's colours. What is the relationship of the wraith-world and that of the maiar? Was Tolkien running out of colours or is there some kinship of the spirit world?~Bethberry
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This is just some rambling speculation here
Bb, so don't know what you want to make of it. Anyway, I forget what topic I was listening to on the radio, but I heard
"he chose the white part of grey." I immediately thought about Gandalf and also the colour symbolism of 'grey.'
Grey is kind of this limbo color, you're neither white nor black, but aspects of both. You're in this middle state, some sort of uncertainty.
Gandalf comes to Middle-earth robed in Grey. I think that's important, because remember when he was chosen he resisted, he didn't want to go to Middle-earth and direct the fight against Sauron:
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"But Olorin declared he was too weak for such a task and he feared Sauron."~Unfinished Tales: The Istari
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Gandalf enters Middle-earth in this grey/limbo position, and he is confronted by the Ring right in the 2nd chapter. Does he continue to lead the resistance against Sauron, or does he take the ring when asked and become Sauron? The climax of Gandalf's transition from
Grey to
White is his sacrifice on the bridge in Moria. When he returns we see him take really a much more active role in spear-heading the fight against Sauron. He is Saruman as he should have been. What's interesting about Saruman is his transition from
White to
'Many Colors', but I think that's for a different discussion.
Anyway, what I just wanted to point out is the colour symbolism behind grey. Perhaps their 'grey clothes' represents the Ringwraiths really being in this limbo-stage, they are neither living nor dead, the live in a 'Shadow World' as well as having a very real and physical presense in Middle-earth.