Maggie Tabberer began her career as a model, but went on to become a journalist and to found a public relations company and a fashion label.
She was born Margaret Ann Trigar on December 11, 1936 in the Adelaide suburb of Parkside, the youngest of five children in a working-class family.
Her potential as a model was spotted when she was 14, by a photographer at her sister's wedding. This led to her first assignment.
In late 1951, 15-year-old Margaret Trigar entered the Miss SA Beach Girl Quest, giving her age as 16. Her sponsor was the Alaska Ice Cream and Produce Company, where she worked as a ledger-machine operator.
The Adelaide News reported: "She is a keen swimmer, and devotes a lot of her time to physical culture work".
A few years later she enrolled at a modelling school.
Soon she was modelling for upmarket stores including David Jones and Melbourne label Georges of Collins Street.
Writing in The Australian Women's Weekly in 1981 about her early career, Tabberer recalled: "How thrilled I was to be chosen for their parades - in those days, if you got to do the Georges parades, you'd arrived!"
Tabberer described the discomfort of late 1950s fashion: "... we suffered merry widow boned bras (ouch), waist cinchers (groan) and girdles designed to eliminate even the slightest natural excess (sheer hell). There were crippling stilettos, hobble skirts, silly hats and skin-tight gloves with a zillion frustrating buttons which, somehow, had to be done up."
In the late 1950s Tabberer began working with German-Australian photographer Helmut Newton, on assignment for Vogue magazine. Tabberer's strong features and cool confident gaze featured in many memorable Newton images and the two became lovers.
She said Newton taught her a lot about fashion, putting her on "the most enormous learning curve".
In her 1998 autobiography, Maggie, Tabberer described how Newton had the idea of doing a photo shoot that would resemble a jewellery robbery, complete with Mayne Nickless truck: Tabberer posed as a "wicked lady", trailing jewels. The scene was so realistic police turned up.
At 17 she married 35-year-old Charles Tabberer at the Parkside Baptist Church. When the marriage ended after seven years, Tabberer and her two daughters moved to Sydney.
In 1962, with her modelling career ending, Tabberer started work for fashion designer Hal Ludlow, learning to sketch his designs and select fabrics. When Ludlow moved overseas, Tabberer turned to PR and began a career in television and journalism.
In 1964 she became a panellist on the Seven Network show Beauty And The Beast, staring down "beastly" host Eric Baume with the help of fellow "beauties" Dita Cobb, Pat Firman, Ena Harwood, Hazel Philips, Anne Deveson and Patricia Lovell.
Even in a show that critics dismissed as "sheer nonsense", Tabberer's mix of intellect, looks and commonsense made her a household name. She won back-to-back Gold Logies in 1970 and 1971.
Helmut Newton introduced her to Ettore Prossimo, an Italian restaurateur, and they married in 1967. That September Tabberer gave birth to their son, Francesco, who died 10 days later from SIDS.
In 1969-70 Tabberer hosted a morning chat show, Maggie, on the Seven Network.
In 1981, after she had put on substantial amount of weight, Tabberer established the Maggie T label, for women sized 12 to 24. According to research at the time, 70 per cent of Australian women were size 14 or bigger.
She became fashion editor for The Australian Women's Weekly and told the magazine: "I can't sew on a button. I wish sometimes I could sew when I buy a big man's shirt and think it's divine. I'm infuriated when I have to pay a lot to have it copied."
She added that it was important for women who are not standard size to dress to their strengths:
"It's a matter of knowing what you've got. My body has thickened, but I don't have a big bottom. My best thing? My long, slim legs - they're why I wear trousers a lot ... I don't have a waist, so I never belt it. But I do like to be belted at the hip, because that makes me narrower there, and longer. That's one of the things about knowing your figure's faults."
Tabberer remained with the Weekly for 15 years, juggling this with heading her Maggie T stores and PR consultancy.
Tabberer's marriage to Prossimo ended after 17 years.
In 1985 she announced she was in a relationship with the journalist Richard Zachariah. From 1990 to 1993 the couple co-hosted a lifestyle program, The Home Show, on ABC-TV.
Tabberer was made a Member of the Order of Australia in the 1998 Queen's Birthday Honours, in recognition of her services to the community and the Australian fashion industry.
In 2001 she began hosting a television interview show, Maggie ... At Home With, visiting the homes of Australian celebrities to discuss their lives and careers.
In August 2015 Tabberer once again appeared on the cover of the Weekly. It was her first photo shoot in more than a decade and she said it would be her last: "Eighty definitely feels like the new 80."
She also revealed something about her personal relationships: "You know all those clever girls who go out and get a handsome, quiet, gentle, loving man? I was never one of those".
Tabberer is survived by her daughters, Amanda and Brooke.
