Fashion: Give in to the dark side

Goths are going to be even more unhappy than usual this autumn, poor souls. Wandering around contemplating the dark side is a fairly miserable occupation at the best of times, but there was always the comforting thought that while everyone else might be having fun, goths were, at least, being marvellously original.

So one can only imagine their collective irritation at the fashion world's borrowing of all things ghoulish, which will have the rest of us channelling Morticia Addams this season.

Well, perhaps not, but it will be hard to avoid a little spooky styling, as designers threw an ultra-glam Halloween party across the autumn catwalks, with leather and lace the staples at Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen. Naturally, designers needed no excuse to indulge in lashings of black (even down to models' lipstick), though inky-blue and metallics are also key to the sophisticated 2008 take on the look.

And if you are under the illusion that all goths look the same, get ready to pick from a whole range of sub-genres: futuristic cyber-goth at Gareth Pugh and Giles Deacon's London shows, rock-goth at Rodarte in New York, and old-fashioned gothic romanticism at Nina Ricci in Paris.

Nevertheless, celeb goths such as Dita von Teese, Vanessa Paradis and Angelina Jolie, who revel in their edgy, non-conformist status (Ms Jolie confesses proudly that as a little girl she dreamed of being an undertaker), will no doubt be irked by the proliferation of dark on the red carpets. Don't be surprised to see all three in ultra-prim pastels in the near future. Well, it just wouldn't do to be the same as the rest of us, would it?