Margaret Thatcher’s Clothes Sent A Clear Message To The World About Her Politics

Margaret Thatcher was one of the most divisive figures of political history. But, love her or loathe her, she was also one its most influential. Britain’s first female Prime Minister left office 30 years ago, but her neoliberal agenda continues to shade – many would say scar – the political landscape to this day.

She also wrought immense influence over the concept of power dressing, something back in the spotlight thanks to season four ofThe Crown, in which Thatcher is portrayed by Gillian Anderson. During her premiership in the ‘80s, Thatcher honed a signature look that became an indelible part of her identity: boxy skirt suits, pearls, top-handle handbags (which acquired such a life of their own that ‘handbagging’ became a word adopted by her ministers to mean a dressing-down from Thatcher) and a rigidly coiffed hairdo that, like her, was ‘not for turning’. A uniform can be restrictive, but it can also be comfortable, freeing up the wearer to get on with the tasks at hand.

What Thatcher understood was that, in a position of political power and indeed for any woman in the public eye, clothes are about so much more than how they look. They’re about what they say. So, for her, those skirt suits imparted a ‘let’s get down to business’ formality; her look was devoid of any frivolity. These were often, somewhat contradictorily, worn with pussybow blouses that hinted at femininity. The pairing of strict suiting and soft shirting highlighted the paradox of her premiership: she wasn’t just in the top job, she was a woman in the top job (something that was not necessarily welcome by her Conservative colleagues).

Her fondness for Conservative cobalt blue hardly needs decoding, nor does her loyalty to British heritage brand Aquascutum. Aesthetically, her look could not be more different from Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle’s, but this allegiance to a specific, appropriate brand was surely heightened by a similar desire to appear diplomatic.

And as for those pearls? For Thatcher these were a non-negotiable that endured long before her election and long after her political career ended. Despite being decorative, they also imparted a traditional propriety. Her favourite double-string necklace was gifted to her by her husband Denis after the birth of their twins, Carol and Mark, in 1953. The Iron Lady did not have a reputation for sentimentality, but she did have a family.

For women in power, across the political spectrum, clothes continue to be a powerful tool of self-assertion. You can still see it today – just look at the Democratic Congresswomen’s renewed adoption of the symbolic white suit (also given a high-profile outing at Kamala Harris’s Vice Presidential acceptance speech). Hillary Clinton’s trouser suits were said to be an attempt to level the playing field between men and women. But it can be treacherous ground to navigate; the £995 Amanda Wakeley leather trousers Theresa May wore for a photoshoot in 2017 were divisive to say the least.

The scrutiny that we put on what women in power wear is often dismissed as sexist double standards (see the furore about Harris’s Carolina Herrera suit). But that is to miss the point; clothes matter. We ask – or at least hope – that our politicians are transparent, frank, visible. In an optically-driven world, the savviest among them know that a picture is worth a thousand words, and can generate even more in column inches.