Ever since Bela Lugosi donned the cape to portray Dracula in 1931, vampires have become a symbol of sexy sophistication in film. As the decades passed, their wardrobes changed to fit evolving attitudes in cinema, with many designed to more closely resemble "creatures of the night" than charming sophisticates. Modern movies like Twilight shied away from making their vampires stuck clinging to the edifice of decadent pasts, instead reflecting the fashions of the day.
For all the fans who welcomed the changes to vampire aesthetic, others no doubt felt they lacked complexity. Vampires beyond Dracula were given a wide berth and a lot of creative license (like werewolf-hunter Selene from Underworld), especially as vampires in movies started to use fashion to convey not just their personalities, but the passage of time, and even their perspective on immortality. For every iconic vampire in movie history, there's another lacking imagination, and the most stylish are not stuck in time, but timeless.
10 Worst: Edward Cullen
Many vampires have blended in with their human victims - it's a perfectly logical way to maintain steady access to their food supply. Even so, elder vampires tend to find ways to retain a modicum of style, usually accumulated over their decades -if not centuries- on Earth. But that's not the case with Edward Cullen, the boyish vampire who's over 100 years old when Bella meets him in Twilight.
Despite having several college degrees, Edward is forced to go to high school in an effort to maintain his cover as a human in every area his family moves to, which means he's a slave to the trends of teenagers lest he look out of place. While this makes him continuously on trend, it ensures he's completely lacking in style.
9 David
For too long vampires had been seen as sophisticated aristocrats stalking Victorian parlors, making lace-covered ladies reach for their smelling salts. With The Lost Boys, a new vampire was born; a bad boy bloodsucker in a leather jacket. No one personified this new incarnation more than David, the leader of a clan of creatures whose hunting grounds included the teenagers at the Santa Clarita boardwalk.
Wearing a black trenchcoat and fingerless gloves, David sat atop his motorcycle, single earring glinting in the moonlight, like a king of chaos. His vampire was bestial, reckless, and modern, making him as iconic as the original Prince of Darkness.
8 Lestat
Whatever era he found himself in, Lestat was going to rule the night. Where once the Brat Prince dressed the part of a foppish dandy in Interview with a Vampire, pursued by pitchfork-wielding peasants, he delighted the world as a rockstar in Queen of the Damned, pursued by mall goths in every continent.
Lestat had fun with fashion and was narcissistic enough to know he looked good in whatever were the latest fashions, but no matter if he was wearing leather or lace, he was a truly dangerous hunter who could croon a power ballad at a fan and then rip their heart out without a second thought.
7 Maximilian
Eddie Murphy turned on the charm to play Maximilian, the royal who arrives in Brooklyn to find his queen (in a little homage to his other classic Coming to America). The horror-comedy Vampire in Brooklyn showcased Murphy at his most seductive and unhinged in a wardrobe that redefined modern gothic elegance, even if the movie itself wasn't well-received.
Blacula walked so Vampire in Brooklyn could run, and while there's reverence to the classic blaxploitation movie in its frames, Murphy wisely chose to make his vampire lover more dangerous, scintillating, and sophisticated.
6 Akasha
For being the very first vampire in existence and centuries old, Akasha looked amazing for her age in Queen of the Damned. When she was awoken from her eternal slumber and went on her mission to find Lestat, she didn't bother trying to blend in with the mere mortals around her.
Akasha highlighted her reputation as the highest echelon of vampire society with her amazing costume, inspired by the royalty of Ancient Egypt, a beautiful ensemble that belied her true savagery as she destroyed anyone in the way of making Lestat her consort.
5 Barnabas Collins
Emerging from his underwater sanctum like some sepulchral member of high society, Barnabas Collins is a man out of time but not out of style when he comes to claim his ancestral home from a conniving witch. The dashing, mysterious figure from the '60s soap opera Dark Shadows appears in the Tim Burton movie of the same name with a dramatic entrance worthy of his long lineage.
While it may be the swinging 1960's and not the 1860's, no one can deny that the vestments and glittering accessories Barnabas wears aren't decadent. From his rings and brooches to the top of his walking cane, he cuts a fabulous silhouette.
4 Selene
Like Keifer Sutherland did in The Lost Boys, Kate Beckinsale's Selene changed what it meant to be a vampire for a new generation. In her sleek leather corseted catsuit, tall boots, and long leather trench coat, she redefined what it meant to be an elegant killer.
Selene wore beautiful clothing designed for form as much as function, and nothing about her attire hindered her ability to kick ass. Other members of her clan might have had more ornamental livery, but Selene's ensembles consistently met in the middle of stylish and utilitarian. Throughout the Underworld franchise, her outfit even received a few fashionable updates.
3 Eve
The ethereal Tilda Swinton has played an ageless entity many times throughout her career, most poignantly in Orlando and most divisively in Doctor Strange, but it's in Only Lovers Left Alive that she's at her most arresting. As Eve the vampire opposite Tom Hiddleston's Adam, she is a perfect amalgamation of timeless grace and reckless abandon.
With her bed head hair, French tucked shirts, sweeping Bohemian robes, and pair of shades, she's a vampire who probably did the opulent Old World thing, did the contemporary thing, and now exists somewhere in the middle.
2 Dracula
Dracula is not only one of the most prominent literary figures of all time, but one of the most iconic figures in horror movie history, too. He has been portrayed as both an elegant lord and a lustful lothario, but in each iteration, he's always the most well-dressed person in the room. Part of Dracula's enduring appeal is the fact that beneath his refined persona lurks a bloodthirsty beast.
Whether he's seen as a gentlemanly count in Dracula and Dracula: Prince of Darkness, a bloodthirsty warlord in Dracula: Untold, or as a time-weary romantic in Bram Stoker's Dracula, he represents the apex of vampire fashion in any iteration.
1 Best: Miriam Blaylock
While it might be difficult to steal the spotlight from David Bowie, the inimitable Catherine Deneuve does just that in The Hunger, as an elegant vampire who has promised to turn him into a creature of the night but delights in his yearning.
Being a vampire has never looked as effortlessly sophisticated, ethereal, and dangerous as it does when Miriam Blaylock is on screen, a powerful creature that wields the power to control destinies in her gloved hand.
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