Items from Baroness Thatcher display, V&A Fashion Galleries © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

LONDON — Three iconic outfits and a hat worn by the late Baroness Margaret Thatcher are now on display in the V&A’s fashion galleries.

Worn by the former British Prime Minster at significant moments in her public and private life, they give insight into the working wardrobe of one of the most important figures in recent political history. In her 1993 book of her memoirs, The Downing Street Years, she wrote, “I took a close interest in clothes, as most women do: but it was also extremely important that the impression I gave was right for the political occasion.” The famed royal blue wool Aquascutum suit (seen in above photo, center) was one of the padded power suits” she was well known for. She wore this suit on election day in 1987 as she won her third general election (as head of the Conservative Party whose party color was blue), and she wore it again while making a speech to the Conservative Party several months later.

The fashion pieces are part of a collection of six outfits donated to the museum earlier this year by her children, Sir Mark Thatcher Bt., and Hon Carol Thatcher, and her grandchildren Michael Thatcher and Amanda Thatcher.

The museum is on Cromwell Road. For more information, www.vamac.uk or +44 (0)20 7942 2000.