6 x 60'
It’s 1961. Girls are risking arrest to wear bikinis on the beach. Women are faking marriage certificates to get the pill. In ‘Ladieswear’ at Goodes luxury department store, it’s all hats, gloves and foundation garments - but for the women who serve behind the counter, the sixties are about to start swinging!
Magda, the elegant doyenne of Model Gowns, dreams of her own boutique – nurturing new designers and bringing fashion to liberated young women. Fay is a blissfully happy newlywed, until her husband’s business schemes leave them submerged in debt - and she is forced to rethink all that is important to her. Lisa takes the first steps towards her ‘big life’ at university, and finds herself torn between work and study, education and ambition. Angela’s hankering for a career in fashion seems an impossible dream until she is hired by Goodes – but the lies she has told to get there run deep and dangerous. Steely and combative, Mrs Virginia Andrews arrives fresh from Harrods, ready to use every trick in the book to build her empire.
Amidst a backdrop of major societal shifts, the women of Goodes embrace their freedom and independence. But the revolution in both society and fashion divides the ‘ladies in black’ - testing their personal choices and casting shadows over their once cherished dreams.
Based on the world and characters of Madeleine St John’s beloved novel, and picking up six months after the events of Bruce Beresford’s film, Ladies in Black dives into the fashion, romance, excitement and challenge of women’s lives at a time of momentous transformation.
Directed by Gracie Otto (The Artful Dodger, The Clearing, Heartbreak High) and starring Debi Mazar (Kaos, Younger, Entourage), Miranda Otto (The Clearing, Talk To Me) and Jessica De Gouw (The Union, The Artful Dodger, The Secret She Keeps) alongside talented newcomers Clare Hughes and Azizi Donnelly.
Sexy, stylish…utterly gorgeous
– Sydney Morning Herald
Big on style and substance…a joy to watch
– Who Magazine
