Vampire Style

The debonair vamp

There’s nothing like a vampire for sexy. Talk about tall dark and handsome. It’s no wonder good girls and bad girls alike have a thing for them. Vampires are our mysterious heroes, pacing the ramparts of the castle at midnight, brooding on mortality and the passing of time.

They are no Rambo warrior hero. The Vampire is Mr. Aristocrat, or should I say Count Aristocrat, powerful with the knowledge of having cheated death and returned, usually with perfect skin, chiseled cheekbones, and a cape or some black leather and chains, depending on the time period.

Coming back from the dead must make you stylish, because there’s never been an unstylish vamp.

There’s so much media out there about vampires. I guess you could say vamps have been done to death (ha ha). I’m sure you’ve seen True Blood’s Eric and Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Spike. They both have true vamp style. If you love vamps, you’ll already know and worship these two. They are a good place to start when taking a look at vamp style.

Spike comes first chronologically and in my heart, so we can start with him. Spike was my first vampire love. No way would I have chosen girly boy Angel over Spike like Buffy did. How could she not have fallen for him?

Here he demonstrates the basic vamp look: black black and more black with black leather on top. You can’t get any simpler than that, and when simple looks this hot, why would you want to change anything?

I made the photo the largest size it would go so you could truly appreciate the perfection of Spike and his Vamp-in-Black-Leather look.

Now some vamps go for a more elaborate take on this basic look, by adding silver jewelry (in other words, lots of chains), and this is definitely another valid style choice. On a human it could easily be too much, but a vamp can pull it off without being taken over by the accessories.

Spike likes chains and wears a few from time to time, and in one episode he goes for the full-on punk look with a leather vest and the metal accents. Definitely another winning combo. Even dressed in the punk attire though it’s obvious that he could easily clean himself up and look right at home in a tux. A vamp likes to slum it from time to time but his true home is in the castle.

In this photo you can also see another asset of vamp style: the tall, elegant figure that is strong but not overly muscled. Like I said, vamps are the aristocrats of the supernatural world, and too much muscle on them would look out of place.

I’d definitely spend eternity with that.

Spike was on the punk/goth end of the vampire style spectrum, and as much as someone with cheekbones like that could be said to be slumming it, he was. God knows he made it look good, but Eric Northman on True Blood goes another direction. He likes to play the Vampire Prince. Spike may have been my first true vampire love, but hey, Eric can be my vampire prince any time he wants…

This vampire is all power. No slumming it here. Is his suit an Armani? If Spike was Punk-Emo-Goth Vamp, perfect for me in my close-enough-to-high-school days, Eric is Vamp as CEO, the grown up girl’s choice of vamp crush. And clearly Eric’s been around long enough to have saved up a bit of cash, which is a good quality in a prince.

Even in leather Eric looks classy.

So I’ve shown you two of my vamp obsessions, Spike and Eric. Two ends of the vampire style spectrum. They’re different but if you put them side by side wearing their black leather you’d see two remarkably similar vamps. What do they have in common? What IS vamp style?

Vamp Style is:

aristocratic / mysterious / dark / brooding

black / leather / chains / Armani / boots

Put that together and you have all of the symbols we humans have got that spell power and danger. And that’s the real draw of the vamp: their dangerous appeal and their endless lifespan. They’ve died and come back and now they have more power than we do and all the time in the world to live. The incredible power scares us frail humans, yes, but if you aren’t scared you aren’t really living…and maybe with a vamp by your side life will be more exciting…certainly it’ll be more stylish.