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If you think black is boring, think again. Fall 2012 brings all things dark out of the shadows with a neo-Gothic twist . Channeling the love of dark fairytales that's dominating the zeitgeist, clothes as dark as night can make you fade into the background or stand out more than ever - it's just up to your imagination. Read on for the full trend report. Street style photography gave black the death sentence. Who wants to photograph black, after all ? The clamor to be the most photographed outside the shows meant more colour, more detail, more pea-cocking, and that started to reflect on trends inside the shows, too. But fashion in fall 2012, as part of this new trend, is out to prove that black doesn’t have to be synonymous with boring . And while most women – fashion show peacocking or not – haven’t forgotten the place of the LBD in one’s wardrobe, this fall / winter season is about something more than that. We’re not just talking about one way to wear black in 2012 but the most stand-out way. The vamp, the gothic, the noir… Mystery and fantasy are the keys to saving dark colours from the death of being ignored. Since the 18th century , Gothic fiction has revelled in that strangely satisfying mix of horror and romance. While it’s hard to place what exactly it is in that mix that strikes such a chord within people, the evidence that it does is not so hard to come by. Just look at Twilight. Yes, it’s impossible to ignore the pop-cultural significance of the Twilight series and wave of vampire fiction revivalism it rode in on . Not to mention the success of Southern Gothic series True Blood that followed. Vampire themes expended, the Hollywood machine has seen promise in reviving every fairytale story that ever filled the pages of your childhood books. But now, these are fairytales grown up . Jack is now the “Giant Killer” (played by Nicholas Hoult), Hansel and Gretel are “Witch Hunters” (thanks to Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton) and Sleeping Beauty’s evil nemesis Maleficent gets to tell her side of the story (a role tied to Angelina Jolie ). There’s Little Mermaids and Pinnochios and Peter Pans on the horizon, and of course we’ve already had the darkly visual Snow White and the Huntsman on screens this year. Now try finding one that doesn’t sell itself with a tagline of a “darker version”… odds are you won’t be able to. We’re drawing from traditional notions of Gothicism, not the Gothic subculture of more modern times . It’s an important distiction: the look isn’t about smudged eyeliner and the addition of tough, punkish details. It rises up from the shadows with flawless, porcelain skin and blood red lips. The starting point is that cold beauty, paired with a sharply androgynous velvet suit or a vampishly feminine black lace number – and the imagination grows wild from there . If you look at the female archetypes in Gothic fiction and fairytales, there’s the virginal maiden and the evil queen. Fall 2012′s fashion trend can draw inspiration from both, but when we’re looking at dark, noir themes it’s the latter that wins out . Frida Giannini typified the theme with her fall 2012 collection for Gucci. Hair was wild and flowing with a twist, lips stained berry red. Billowy sheer fencing blousons, tuxedo jackets and capes were married to voluminous jodhpur pants and riding . The feminine contingent at Gucci was darkly ethereal: rich velvet off-the-shoulder gowns and creeping black embellished vines across sheer floor-grazing gowns were some runway highlights .