“Hopeless had its beginnings on Gaby’s dining room table, in a tiny rental apartment in Hawthorn. In those early days, we were both working multiple day jobs. We spent nights and weekends studying fashion (Gaby) and marketing (Domi), and building Hopeless from the ground up. Each piece of lingerie was produced on a single domestic sewing machine given to us by our grandmother.
We began to develop a profile and wonderful community of supporters. We invested in our first industrial sewing machine. Fashion editors and stylists in Australia and overseas took notice of Hopeless, and we started receiving requests to showcase our pieces in magazines and on celebrities. With each new collection, we refined our vision and expanded our creative range. Our community continued to grow and we soon welcomed our first staff members to the team.
By 2015, in need of more space, we graduated from Gaby’s table to Domi’s living room. By then, the two of us were able to leave our day jobs and focus on Hopeless full-time. As of late 2017, we operate out of what was once a two bedroom home in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Designing, sampling, manufacturing, posting, and all the other parts involved in the day-to-day running of Hopeless happens from this one space: we have old bedrooms for offices, a living room turned sewing room, dining room turned cutting room, and a kitchen turned showroom. We keep things small and in-house, to ensure every member of our team is cared for and treated fairly.
Since the very beginning, Hopeless has been inspired by the balance of dark and light, by the past filtered through a modern lens, by creativity in all its forms. We’re inspired by art history, architecture, pulp imagery and old movies; by powerful women throughout history and by our daughters (recently welcomed into our families!), Chloe and Charlotte.”
