Halloween came dressed to kill. This year’s The New Nocturnals brought together the country’s most daring creatives, icons, and creatures of the night — trading the gilded grandeur of past Opulence Balls for something darker, grittier, and delightfully unhinged.
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Hosted by Mond Gutierrez and Ash Rye, the night thrummed with electric energy and wicked style. Mond appeared as both skin and unskinned — a vision of beauty and mayhem combined, dressed by Jaggy Glarino and styled by Roko Arceo. Beside him, Ash Rye shimmered in a hairy black off-shoulder look by Ushi Sato, sequined like starlight scattered across midnight.
“The past few years, The Opulence Ball has brought the glitz and the glam,” Mond said. “So this year, we wanted something different. Something darker, edgier, fiercer. The New Nocturnals is all about the creatures of the night — with a high-fashion edge.”
And what a night it was. Standout looks Andrea Brillantes slinked in as a black cat, every movement sleek and deliberate — pure feline confidence in motion. Michelle Dee turned mischief into allure as a high-fashion clown, her pink-and-black look by Jan Garcia and IÑIGO both playful and menacing. Kyline Alcantara embodied DC’s infamous Two-Face, half-human and half-chaos, styled by Studio 24c.
The energy was contagious with a coven of creativity. Barbie Imperial appeared as a darkly captivating siren, Kylie Verzosa as a heart-hungry enchantress, Christi McGarry as a half-dead ghoul, and Zeinab Harake-Parks as a sultry witch who seemed to control every flicker of candlelight.
Designers Chris Nick and Iñigo Villegas joined in the midnight mayhem with IÑIGO muses Liam Lebroy and Gabbie Mariano, while Brandon Espiritu and Darren Espanto prowled through the venue as a red-eyed vampire with dangerous charm.
“The theme’s broad on purpose — it’s a meet-up for the creative industries. Designers, makeup artists, celebrities, influencers — it’s a night for everyone to bring their imagination to life.”
Co-creator Ash Rye on The New Nocturnals
In one corner, Richard Gutierrez mirrored his brother’s duality — elegant yet eerie in a red velvet suit, charred with theatrical distress. Ruffa Gutierrez, ever the scene-stealer, reigned as an Evil Queen. Joey Mead King gave bones a chic revival as a stylish skeleton, while model Pam Prinster floated through the crowd in a gothic black cape that caught the light like a spell. Jillian Ward glittered with a heart quite literally shining from her chest, and makeup artist Renz Pangilinan earned the crowd’s fascination as a blue, alien-like being — one of the night’s most talked-about looks.
Ash Rye reflected on the night’s creative freedom: “Every year, Mond and I want to do something a little bit different. We haven’t served a classic Halloween before — nothing this dark or scary. But even with The New Nocturnals, it’s still opulent. We’ll always be Opulence Presents,” she said.
That they did, as the evening pulsed with eerie beauty and camp theatricality — confirmation that when the lights go dim and The New Nocturnals rise, the only rule left is to make the darkness look just as good.
Photographed by ANGELOU LUQUE
