Expat magazine editor Laura Brown named 2019 Australian Fashion Laureate

Laura Brown, the expat editor of US InStyle, has been named this year’s Australian Fashion Laureate.

Editor-in-chief of US InStyle magazine Laura Brown. Picture: AFP

Laura Brown, the expat editor of US InStyle, has been named this year’s Australian Fashion Laureate.

The awards took place in Sydney on Wednesday, in front of an audience of designers, industry insiders, retailers and other fashion identities.

Brown won the lifetime achievement award from a shortlist of names that included fashion icon Maggie Tabberer and the late Bernie Leser, founder of Australian Vogue.

“I am so sincerely, deeply honoured,” Brown told The Australian from Los Angeles ahead of the ceremony.

Laura Brown won the lifetime achievement award from a shortlist that included Maggie Tabberer. Picture: Matrix

She added, in deference: “Maggie should be getting this. I dedicate (this award) to her because she taught us when we were young what chic really was, what elegance really was. She was my first vision of what that was, and that meant everything.

“To be mentioned in the same breath as Maggie Tabberer is such an honour.”

Tabberer, a former model, editor, TV presenter and entrepreneur whose career spanned more than six decades, was at the ceremony, and took the outcome with grace and humour.

“I’m thrilled to have been nominated — I’m a bit shitty I didn’t win,” Tabberer said with a laugh. “But it really doesn’t matter because just the fact that you’re nominated is such a compliment and I’ve loved all those years in the business.”

While much of Brown’s 26-year publishing career has been spent in the US, she said that receiving an Australian award was all the sweeter.

“To get an award like this from our people, who really call a spade a spade and are really straight­forward, means more to me than a bunch of the silliness we can engage with in these parts,” said Brown.

The Laureate award acknowledges personal success and the advancement and promotion of Australian fashion.

“The core of me is Aussie and anything I can do to showcase us (globally) is what I’m doing,” Brown said.