With her scraped-back hair, flowing white linen outfits and silk scarf draped insouciantly over one shoulder, fashion doyenne Maggie Tabberer epitomised Australian style and sophistication. The former model, fashion editor, broadcaster and entrepreneur rose from humble beginnings in Adelaide to the very top of the fashion tree, after being spotted by the great photographer Helmut Newton when she was a 23-year-old mother of two young daughters.
“In those days they used to take Polaroids, so you could see what you looked like, and those images were so sexy, like nothing I’d ever been in before,” she said. “For instance, I’ve never smoked in my life but Helmut loved me to have a cigarette in some of the shots, sometimes in a long sleek holder. That was something that he really loved. I felt like Greta Garbo, it was all so European.
Maggie Tabberer, fashion editor of The Australian Women’s Weekly on a fashion shoot with photographer Greg Barrett in 1987.Tabberer was recognised by the fashion industry with several significant awards. In 1985, she became the first woman to win the Sir Charles McGrath marketing award, and the year after received the recognition of excellence award by the Fashion Group of Melbourne and the advance Australia award for her achievements in fashion.