Inspiring editorial from MIX Magazine
There is something irrepressibly jaunty about a polka dot, it is one of the world’s most optimistic motifs. Though now ubiquitous, their rise parallels advancements in textile technology. The graphic symmetry of a dot just wasn’t possible before the early 19th century and, in any case, dots had morbid associations with the plague and illness. The dawn of the industrial revolution and the boom in mechanised jacquard looms opened up opportunities for this mechanically spaced pattern.
Yayoi Kusama | I'm Here, But Nothing (2000) | Photo ©Daniel Mansur
The name also hints at the fleeting trends of the time. In the 1840s, the polka, a Czech peasant dance, swept through Europe, and clever marketers capitalised by attaching the name to clothing. The dance craze faded, but the dot endured.
George Luks | Smithsonian American Art Museum | The Polka dot dress
By the early 20th century, polka dots printed on crêpe silks and cottons had become a shorthand for informal prettiness. British society photographer Cecil Beaton immortalised them, snapping figures like Elsie de Wolfe and Nancy Cunard. Hollywood also fell hard for polka dots in the 50s and 60s, where they became synonymous with femininity, innocence and wholesome sexuality. Marilyn Monroe, a young Elizabeth Taylor, and Lucille Ball were all dressed accordingly.
National Museum of African American History and Culture | Cabin in the Sky 1943
And then of course, there is Minnie Mouse, perhaps the most powerful influencer of the outsized polka dot bow and matching ensemble. Bizarrely, in 1962, there was even a DC Comics villain called Polka Dot Man. Princess Diana helped fuel a polka revival in the 80s, followed by Madonna’s dotted tights in Who’s That Girl? (1987) and Julia Roberts’ now-iconic dress in Pretty Woman (1990).
National Museum of African American History and Culture | Three women in dotted calico dresses
Polka dots are also much loved around the wider world. In Japan, shibori is cleverly used to create a grid of white circles against an indigo background. In Africa too, polka dots appear in more complex designs, as lines and frames. First Nation Australians also use dot patterns in their work. In Europe, polka dots became synonymous with flamenco dancing. Rather poetically, the dots are known in Spanish as lunares, or little moons.
Yayoi Kusama | Photo Noriko Takasugi
Artists too have been lured by the perfection of the recurrent dot. For Yayoi Kusama, dots have been woven into her highly autobiographical work, with pumpkins covered and self-portraits formed from polkas. Damien Hirst’s dot paintings, that appear printed but are painted by hand, Bridget Riley’s Op Art that shifts into optical illusion and Leigh Bowery’s face and body covered with polka dots all pay testimony to this motif’s strange power.
Dick Jewell Still from What's Your Reaction to the Show 1988 | Photo © Dick Jewell
For interiors, the slightly hallucinatory quality of the polka means that it is seen primarily as an accent. Too many dots risk slipping into a 60s fever dream or a Kusama installation. HAY shows how it’s done with its Mega dot quilt in colours subtle enough to banish headaches, as does ferm LIVING for its dot wallpaper. There are bolder statements though from Marimekko, where polka dots have become synonymous with the brand and feature on everything from bedding to tableware.
HAY
So, what is the polka dots super-strength? It never aspires to greatness, instead its gentle, perky optimism, especially in trying times, is what ensures its longevity.
Marimekko
MIX Magazine is a print and digital publication by our creative agency, Colour Hive and is available as part of the PIONEER subscription of In Colour.
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