Tributes have flowed for pioneering model, fashion icon and media entrepreneur Maggie Tabberer, who has died aged 87.
Former Australian Women's Weekly editor Deborah Thomas reflected on Tabberer's impact, describing her as a trailblazer.
"The peak job for young models was to be chosen by Maggie to be in one of her incredible parades," Thomas told AAP.
"She did all the big fashion awards ... it was the Maggie Tabberer style and there was always a lot of entertainment in what she did."
Thomas said Tabberer leaves behind a life well lived, full of firsts for women.
"She really sort of paved the way for women in an industry that was sort of coming of age. She really put Australian fashion on the map and she championed it," she said.
Harper's Bazaar's Patty Huntington described Tabberer as "a real Australian fashion icon, national treasure and the original multi-hyphenate".
"After being a model she could have easily retired, but she started her own business," Huntington told ABC.
With her strong features and confident gaze, Tabberer was effectively Australia's first supermodel, working with famed photographer Helmut Newton in the late 1950s.
This catapulted her onto the cover of Vogue Australia, and then to modelling work in Paris, Vogue editorial director Edwina McCann told AAP.
"Maggie was warm and always had a sparkle in her eyes," she said.
"She was a household name in Australia and an icon for the fashion industry."
Modelling assignments were just the start as Tabberer went on to become a journalist, founded a fashion label and public relations company and hosted several television shows.
In 1967, she launched the public relations firm Maggie Tabberer and Associates.
She won back-to-back Gold Logies in 1970 and 1971 for her daily TV television chat show Maggie.
Tabberer launched the plus-size clothing label Maggie T in 1981 and became fashion editor of The Australian Women's Weekly the same year - an influential post she held for 15 years.
The magazine's current editor Sophie Tedmanson said Tabberer was an icon who empowered women around the world.
"It was an era in which Australian fashion took on the world and Maggie blazed that trail," she said.
"We thank Maggie for her extraordinary legacy and send love to her entire family."
Tabberer first appeared in the pages of the magazine as a young model in the 1960s and went on to make the cover of The Weekly at least 15 times.
The magazine most recently photographed Tabberer for what would be her very last shoot - for the September 2023 cover to celebrate the magazine's 90th anniversary.
"She showed women that you could be gorgeous and relevant at every age, right up until she appeared on the 90th birthday edition of The Weekly in her 80s," Thomas said.
Tabberer was appointed a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia in the 1998 Queen's Birthday Honours.
Her death was announced on Friday in a joint statement by her family on social media.
"She was an icon in every sense of the word and we will miss her dearly … along with the rest of Australia. Rest in peace Nanna. We love you to bits forever."
Tabberer would have turned 88 next week and is survived by her daughters, Amanda and Brooke.
