How to wear the classic polka dot with a 2023 twist
Emily Wong Not since the Zara spotted dress of 2019 – so ‘viral’ it spread like a rash across the UK – have polka dots had such a moment.
It’s not like they were ever really out of style, but something is different this summer. Once again, they’re everywhere, but this time around, we are making them our own. They’re big and bold, they’re imperceptibly small, they’re punchy, they’re muted… At one fashion event I went to recently, five out of 15 of us were wearing polka dots in some form or another.
Polka dots can be relied upon for elegance and impact. Remember the scene in Pretty Woman where Julia Roberts’s character turns heads at the polo in a brown spotted dress? Surely the 1990s’ most memorable glow-up – and a look Roberts drew on again for a polo match (what else?) in 2019, right.
Spots are playful; they don’t take themselves too seriously. Even the name, polka, suggests joie de vivre. The print first became popular in the 1800s, around the same time as the Czech dance for which it was named (‘polka’ means ‘Polish woman’ in Czech).
The print was a favourite of Princess Diana (presenting a newborn Prince William to the world’s press in 1982; red and white for a royal tour of Japan in 1986; monochrome for Royal Ascot in 1988). The current Princess of Wales has been seen in no fewer than five Alessandra Rich spotted dresses, plus two by LK Bennett, one by Suzannah and another by Rixo. Add a puffed sleeve and a wide-brimmed hat, and the homage is complete.
The most famous polka-dot ambassador is the 94-year-old Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, whose mirrored infinity rooms, populated by gourds daubed with her signature motif, generate sell-out exhibitions including the one currently at Manchester’s Aviva Studios.
‘A polka dot has the form of the sun, which is a symbol of the energy of the whole world and our living life, and also the form of the moon, which is calm,’ she once said. ‘Polka dots can’t stay alone; like the communicative life of people, two or three polka dots become movement. Polka dots are a way to infinity.’
You don’t need to be au fait with their philosophical significance to wear them, though. This is a print for everybody: it’s genderless, classless, ageless and timeless. It’s time to join the dots.
Try these...
Viscose dress, £268, Reiss; Silk mix dress, £315, Rixo; Viscose silk blend dress, £259, Baum und Pferdgarten
Blouse, £24.99, H&M; Crepe trousers, £29.50, Marks & Spencer
Jacquard knit vest, £109.33, And You at W.Concept; Viscose skirt, £125, Mirla Beane; Recycled sterling silver and Mpingo Blackwood diamonds, £189, Kinraden
