The ‘murdered-out’ scheme of automotive cosmetics may be reaching the end of its popular run, but BMW’s flash-in-the-pan Vantablack paint could stir the Gothic fashion to rise from the dead.

Although this new tone is more of an absolute deficit of color than a glossily dark, romantic embellishment. Which dresses this one-off X6 in a peculiarly cosmic suit, and makes of it a roadworthy black hole. It’s more futuristic than dramatic.

Vantablack is the work of U.K. company NanoSystems. It absorbs 99.96% of the visible spectrum of light. Tough to photograph, then; it’s so dark even subtler variations in design language are drawn into it and subsumed.

NanoSystems’ other business interests include defense contracts and autonomous vehicle systems; they’re busy these days. And, the Vantablack coating is actually quite fragile, and not particularly suited to the rigors of the road. So, after its appearance in Frankfurt, this one-off X6 will simply vanish into the misty corridors of time…although similar treatments will in all likelihood appear in the future.