“Dress code isn’t strict, let’s be honest,” wrote Arrosa on Instagram, “but this is vampire season. Dark romance, gothic fits, Victorian energy, dramatic everything – people are going to go in.” That message was posted just days out from the Vampire Ball, London’s premier celebration of the pale parasites. You can see why its founder wanted people to fully commit – vampires have been culture’s forever muse for as long as we can remember. From Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel in the 1890s, to Twilight’s sparkly Edward Cullen and today’s glut of vampire TV shows, we’ll never let go of our morbid fascination with the blood-sucking undead.

It was back in 2023 that Arrosa originally founded her club night Necropolis (meaning “city of the dead” in Greek), an underground death metal and techno rave that catered to London’s most hardcore in a disused church from 1563. It was from that night that the Vampire Ball was born – Necropolis’ themed sister event that focused solely on the mythic creatures. “Vampire Ball was different because it didn’t start as our idea, it was asked by our community, and we built the idea with them,” says Arrosa. And as her IG call to arms would suggest, fashion is a core tenet of the Vampire Ball’s success.

Held a stone’s throw from the Thames at The Steel Yard, May’s edition saw hundreds descend in spooky garb that drew from multiple generations of vampire lore. There were the old-timey ones in corsets and Victorian mourning veils, modern iterations in leather harnesses and Rick Owens boots, plus undead kawaii girls in anime shirts with blood-red contact lenses. Reams of silver jewellery were slung around necks, bodies were slipped into fishnet stockings, while the ghostly beauty looks mostly consisted of pale faces, dramatic eye makeup and kaleidoscopic hair. “What makes it special is everyone puts so much thought into their outfits, makeup and everything,” says Arrosa. “You can see their excitement for the event through their outfits.”

With DJs like METALLIC LOVER playing 80s synth, ONA:V blasting hypnotic techno and GLOTZER’s mix of EBM, industrial and italo, the 1000-strong crowd were persuaded to unleash their darkest selves through fashion. “At the beginning, we encouraged people to wear all black. There was a sense of respect around death and mourning, so that felt like the right starting point,” says Arrosa, of the early days of Necropolis. “But quite quickly it became clear it was limiting creativity, and our crowd naturally wanted to push beyond it. Over time, it became a lot more experimental, more creative. Now it’s really anything goes, and that’s kind of the point.”

Scroll through the gallery at the top of the page for all the best looks from the night