If you’re already planning a viewing party for next year’s return of the disturbing 90s’ cult show Twin Peaks, you’re going to need something to wear. And who better to fill that niche than Aussie brand Hopeless Lingerie, the only label with its heart tuned to romance and its head filled with darker things like murder and mutilation.

A new Collection from Hopeless is always a cause for both celebration and great curiosity and the release today of ‘The Awakening’, its sexy/dark new set, doesn’t disappoint.

Hopeless founder Gaby Adamidis is a horror film aficionado with a refined taste for the macabre that she brings to her design work. And for The Awakening she goes to some unlikely source material for inspiration — the films of David (Twin Peaks) Lynch and very early horror film classics like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Clearly, this is not the sort of thing they teach you in fashion school. It takes an aesthetic sensibility that sees beauty in guts-n-gore and a kind of lusty, romantic fatalism in the doomed heroines who are inevitably on the receiving end of such mayhem. No wonder goth girls adore Hopeless.

The Awakening collection comes with another of the dreamy, oblique photo editorials that Hopeless is equally renowned for, and this one is a stunner. Campaign model Ashlee Anne Scotland throws her head back in nearly every image, offering up her throat like someone in the throes of ecstasy, lost in a dreamy reverie … or about to be murdered. How very Hopeless!

You have to parse this collection closely to spot the Lynch references — Is the flouncy Madeleine nightie a tribute to Laura Palmer? Do the ruffled bra tops channel the doomed femme fatales of Mulholland Drive (above) or Blue Velvet?

The Dr. Caligari reference, though, is more obvious and fun to explore. The 1920 film, considered the first horror movie, was silent, so everything is communicated through macabre visuals and menacing expressionistic set design (below). It’s not hard to see a compatibility with Hopeless Lingerie’s brand signatures — black, bold interlacing lines and dramatic, oversized cutouts.

The Awakening collection includes what you’d expect from Hopeless: harnesses, suspenders, collars and a mix of strappy modern styles and flirty romantic ones … all in figure-hugging black mesh and stretch lace.

The standouts are the spectacular and complicated Antoinette body (main photo above, and expensive at $495 AUD) and the cute Heidi top with its midriff lacing. As always, everything is handmade in Melbourne with custom sizing available.

Gaby says the new collection is “a subtle nod to the world of ghosts and vampires, seemingly abandoned places, and getting lost before finding yourself again.” That might not be obvious, or even make much sense, to people who aren’t already familiar with this indie fave. But Hopeless fans get it; they know the brand is an expression of Gaby’s dark, visionary realm. Abandon your doubts and fears, and surrender.

Below are more images from ‘The Awakening’ editorial, shot by photographer Steph Cammarano.