Fashion legend Maggie Tabberer is a Women’s Weekly cover girl again, at 86

Two-time Gold Logie winner Maggie T opens up on how she took on Kerry Packer and her “special connection” with controversial photographer Helmet Newton, whose photos made her Australia’s first supermodel.

Fashion icon Maggie Tabberer on the 90th cover of Australian Women's Weekly at 86. Photo: Supplied/Australian Women's Weekly.

There was only one magazine that Australia’s original supermodel, Maggie Tabberer, would consider doing a cover shoot for at the age of 86 — the same magazine of which she was the face for 15 years, The Australian Women’s Weekly.

Tabberer last featured as a ‘cover girl’ two years ago, after she declared a cover shoot for the Weekly in 2015 (the first she’d done in a decade) would be “the last shoot”.

“Modelling was bloody hard work,” she said, “but Helmut was great fun. I absolutely adored him. They are very, very happy memories.”

In the exclusive interview celebrating the magazine’s 90th birthday issue, out Thursday, the two-time Gold Logie winner dishes the dirt on her extraordinary career and private life, including her relationship with controversial photographer Helmut Newton.

Fashion legend Maggie Tabberer on the 90th cover of Australian Women's Weekly at 86. Photo: Supplied/Australian Women's Weekly.

“When I looked at the shots, I thought ‘My God, is it me?’ Very quickly I knew that he was very gifted and he took wonderful photographs of me. We had an incredibly special connection which I think came out in the pictures.”

TV personality Maggie Tabberer. Picture: Helmut Newton.

Maggie Tabberer, former fashion editor and presenter (R), with restaurateur Ettore Prossimo on their wedding day 1967.

The power duo went on to rock the fashion industry with a portfolio of work under Margaret May’s new name.

“He renamed me. Helmut Newton coined Maggie and it stuck,” she said.

“I had worked with a couple of other photographers and they were all good, but I don’t think any of them touched Newton.”

There was only one magazine that Australia’s original supermodel, Maggie Tabberer, would consider doing a cover shoot for at the age of 86 — the same magazine of which she was the face for 15 years, The Australian Women’s Weekly. Picture: Supplied by Australian Women’s Weekly.

Tabberer is one of the most respected fashion doyennes to come out of Australia, as recognisable now as she was in the 60s. She later founded her own fashion label and PR companies, but is best known for her long-time position as Fashion Editor of the Weekly.

When larger-than-life media tycoon Kerry Packer hand-picked her for the role, Tabberer said he refused to speak to her management, a relatively new advent in the industry at the time.

“Kerry Packer didn’t want to talk to Harry M Miller at all,” Tabberer said.

“But I said, ‘Well if you want me, you’re going to have to talk to him. He’s my manager.”

Maggie Tabberer in a press conference in the TAA lounge at Adelaide Airport, October 1972.

Maggie Tabberer being interviewed in her hotel suite at the Adelaide Hilton, 16 Sep 1985. In Adelaide on the first leg of a two-week tour around Australia to launch her summer collection.

Packer acquiesced and cut a deal.

“My mother (Molly Trigar) loved The Women’s Weekly. It was the holy grail in our house. She was absolutely thrilled,” of Tabberer’s appointment in 1981.

Meanwhile, she was: “scared s***less”.

While the industry continues its evolution, Tabberer’s advice for young aspiring models remains much the same: “Do something you love. You can’t give your whole spirit into something unless you really love it.”