The Lake and Stars (and the Occult) for Spring/Summer 2011

We love our lingerie, and heaven knows we love our lingerie models--we'd just like them hawking their underpinnings with a little more subversive wit from time to time. The Lake and Stars (the name itself a Victorian euphemism for a woman's prowess in bed) has already earned a devoted following for lingerie with sensuality and cleverness in equal measure; their Tom Hines-shot Spring 2011 lookbook, "Ritualized," is just the sort of sexy dark humor we've come to love from them.

Subtitled "The Art of Communal Living," the lookbook is a provocatively sexy, somewhat disorienting exploration of occultism--Illuminati pyramids, naked torch-lit rituals, aphoristic mantras and all. The watery baptisms and seemingly orgiastic bodies tangled up in rope are enticing enough, and the intensely detailed artistic design and iconography might send you down a DaVinci Code-esque conspiracy trail. Taken as a whole, however, we love the lookbook as a more down-to-earth manifesto of nonconformity and self-belief. Words like "All beliefs are limiting, but rules are especially so" connote an idea of girl-power rebellion; if joining The Lake and Stars cult means hanging with the smart, free-spirited, fashion-forward ladies pictured, we'll take it over Aleister Crowley any day.

Photos: Refinery29