Outfits named after Soviet leader and broadcaster in wardrobe

CLOTHES NAMED after Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev and BBC broadcaster Terry Wogan hung in Margaret Thatcher’s wardrobe, a newly-revealed clothing diary has shown.

The former Prime Minister apparently began to keep a note of what she wore in 1988 and diary entries for 1990 record that she wore her “Pink Chanel Gorbachev” to Coronation Street and her “Wogan Burgundy” to the Bank of England.

Mr Wogan, who interviewed Mrs Thatcher in January 1990, appeared to have several outfits named after him including a “Wogan Long” and a “Wogan Short”, though these may have been variations on a single outfit.

Soviet politician Mr Gorbachev had the most outfits named after him and he was followed by US President Ronald Reagan.

“It’s interesting that so many were named for their association with Gorbachev,” said Chris Collins, from the Margaret Thatcher Archive Trust.

“She really was showing off on her Soviet trips – glamour was part of her approach to ending the Cold War.

“Reagan was second in the naming stakes, while (US President George HW) Bush, (Chancellor of Germany Helmut) Kohl and (French President Francois) Mitterrand predictably got nothing at all.”

In one 1990 diary entry, Mrs Thatcher is recorded as wearing her “Black Dull Suit” to meet President Bush.

When the Prime Minister formally tendered her resignation to the Queen on November 28, 1990, her clothing diary records that she wore her “Burgundy New York W Velvet Collar” for the occasion.