Before Instagram influencers and reality show home renovators there was Maggie Tabberer, whose poise and urbane advice on fashion and decorating made her a household name. Known fondly as Maggie T, she has died just days before her 88th birthday.
Tabberer was, quite literally, the face of Australian fashion. Photographed by Lord Snowdon in 1960, she was the first local model to appear on the cover of just-launched Australian Vogue.
But there was much more to Tabberer than beauty.
She was a media pioneer, entrepreneur, fashion designer and television presenter. Her slicked-back hair – and later, elegant headscarves – made her instantly recognisable, and together with her stylish, loose-fitting wardrobe gave her cult-like status among a generation of Australian women brought up to believe you were naked without pantyhose and a girdle.
With a face that launched a thousand products, Tabberer continued to work in the fashion industry after her active modelling days were over. In 1981 she launched a plus-size clothing label, Maggie T, the same year she became fashion editor of the Australian Women’s Weekly where she stayed for 15 years. Television did not escape her sights – Tabberer was so successful she won back-to-back Gold Logies, in 1970 and 1971.
Margaret May Trigar was born in Adelaide on 11 December 1936, the youngest of Alfred and Molly’s five children. At 17, the rebellious teenager married Charles Tabberer, a 35-year-old car dealer, and by 21, she was the restless mother of two daughters, Amanda and Brooke. Walking past a modelling school one day, she signed up for classes and was an instant success. Soon Tabberer was working in Melbourne where she met and fell in love with the renowned German photographer Helmut Newton. Tabberer’s marriage broke down and she and Newton embarked on what she described as “a perfect, lovely” affair.
With her marriage over and Newton now living in Paris, Tabberer embraced new opportunities, moving to Sydney with her daughters. Here she met her second husband and great love, the Italian restaurateur Ettore Prossimo. The couple married in 1967, but later that year their 10-day-old son Francesco died from sudden infant death syndrome.
“You know, you live and go on doing what you’re doing, but you know you’re not joyous. There’s no joy for a long time,” Tabberer said in a 2011 interview.
Since 1964, Tabberer had been a panellist on Beauty and the Beast, a talkshow pitting the views of women against those of men. It was the ideal vehicle for audiences to appreciate the grace and good humour with which Tabberer dealt with her weight – and her sorrow – and in 1967 she was offered her own daily chatshow, Maggie.
Prossimo and Tabberer separated after 17 years of marriage, but reignited their friendship before his death in 1996. Throughout the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s Tabberer continued to appear on television in a range of lifestyle programs. She and her then-partner Richard Zachariah hosted The Home Show on the ABC from 1990 to 1995, when they split up. The couple never professed to be experts, but as they had renovated six of their own homes over six years they had plenty of experience.
Tabberer was made a member of the Order of Australia in 1998 for her services to the fashion industry. The artist Paul Newton twice entered his portraits of her into the Archibald prize, most recently in 2020. Her biography, Maggie, was published in 1999. Contemporary recognition for her contribution to Australian fashion eluded her; in 2019 she was nominated as an Australian fashion laureate, but ultimately overlooked.
In 2016, the happily single Tabberer came out of retirement to appear on the cover of the Weekly and share her thoughts on eight decades of life.
“At 80 I’ve come to my senses about men,” she said. “I’m not going to be getting into bed and taking my clothes off – don’t be ridiculous. I’ve still got a healthy ego.”
Maggie Tabberer was successful both in front of the camera and behind it, as well as in print journalism, design and marketing. Throughout her career, she successfully manoeuvred her personal brand, before anyone had put a name to that art.
Tabberer is survived by her daughters Amanda and Brooke and by her grandson Marco.
Maggie Tabberer: Born 11 December 1936, died 6 December 2024, aged 87.
This article was amended on 6 December 2024 to remove an incorrect reference to Maggie Tabberer being the only winner of back-to-back Gold Logies.
