Ladies in Black, the new six-part ABC series, opens with Magda (Debi Mazar), the head of Goodes luxury department store’s “Model Gowns”. As Magda is striding assuredly down the main street, we hear Peggy Lee’s famous 1962 anthem of feminist resilience: I’m A Woman . Chic and modern, the epitome of the confident 1960s woman, she wears a hat from the vintage clothes collection of costume designer Marion Boyce.
We are introduced to several other key characters, see a streetscape lined with classic cars. The scene of Sydney, 1961, is established. Taking its inspiration from the 1993 bestselling novel The Women in Black by Madeleine St.
John, the series follows two earlier adaptations, firstly the 2015 theatrical musical Ladies in Black, which featured Tim Finn’s music, and then director Bruce Beresford’s successful 2018 feature film Ladies in Black. Director Gracie Otto is quoted in press kit as offering the inspiration as Mad Men (2007–15) or The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel (2017–23), both of which are set in the same era as this series, and, like this one, tell stories about women who are seeking to achieve a place in the world on their own terms.
One Australian production that comes to mind in a similar style is Miss Fischer Modern (2019). However, it also belongs to a tradition – or perhaps it could almost be a genre – of shows set in department stores which have similar tropes: The Paradise (2012–13), set in 1875 and based on a novel about the founder of P.
