Main menu

WikipediaThe Free Encyclopedia

Search Wikipedia

Search

Create account

Log in

Personal tools

Contents hide

(Top)

Etymology

Usage

See also

References

Further reading

Polka dot

Article

Talk

Read

Edit

View history
Tools

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Polka dots)

For the town, see Polkadot, North Carolina. For the cryptocurrency, see Polkadot (cryptocurrency).

Red polka dots on a yellow background

Woman wearing polka dot dress

Polish "Bunzlauer" ceramics

German ceramics

Frédéric Bazille's 1867 painting Family Reunion, containing two women in blue polka dot dresses

Polka dot is a pattern consisting of an array of large filled circles of the same size.[1]

Polka dots are commonly seen on children's clothing, toys, furniture, ceramics, and Central European
folk art, but they appear in a wide array of contexts. The pattern rarely appears in formal contexts, and is
generally confined to more playful attire such as bathing suits and lingerie.

Etymology

It is likely that the term originated because of the popularity of the polka dance around the same time
the pattern became fashionable, just as many other products and fashions of the era also adopted the
"polka" name.[1]

Usage

In 1962, DC Comics introduced Polka-Dot Man with irregularly-sized and differently coloured dots. Polka-
Dot Man made his first theatrical debut in the film The Suicide Squad directed by James Gunn. He was
played by actor David Dastmalchian.

Since 1975, a red-on-white Polka-dotted jersey is awarded to the leader in the Mountain stages of the
annual Tour de France cycling tournament.[2]

Some people associate polka dots with Venezuelan fashion designer Carolina Herrera, who used polka
dots on most of her dresses during the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as on the boxes of perfume
Carolina Herrera, Herrera For Men, Aquaflore and Flore.[3]

Much of the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama's work features a polka dot motif,[4][5] and the
cryptocurrency Polkadot takes its name after the design.

The polka dot also appears in popular music. "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" is a
novelty song telling the story of a shy girl in a very revealing bathing suit who stays immersed in the
ocean water to hide from view. It was written by Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss and first released in June
1960 by Brian Hyland. Before that however, "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" was a popular song with
music by Jimmy Van Heusen and lyrics by Johnny Burke, published in 1940. It was Frank Sinatra's first hit
recorded with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. The song is one of the top 100 most-frequently recorded
jazz standards[6] with arrangements by Gil Evans and others and notable recordings by Lester Young,
Sarah Vaughn and many others.

The 1943 Twentieth Century Fox Technicolor musical film The Gang's All Here, directed by Busby
Berkeley, featured a large production number "The Polka-Dot Polka".[7] The song was written by Harry
Warren and Leo Robin, referencing the 19th Century Polka Dot craze in the lyric, and sung by Alice Faye
with the Busby Berkeley dancers.[8]

See also

Look up polka dot in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Polka dots.

Ben-Day dots

Hypoestes phyllostachya

Pardopsis punctatissima

Polka Dot Door

Polka-dot paint

Stripe pattern

References

"polka", Oxford English Dictionary, On account of the popularity of the dance, polka was prefixed as a
trade name to articles of all kinds (cf. quot. 1898 in 1); e.g. the polka curtain-band (for looping up
curtains), polka-gauze, polka hat; {polka-dot}, a pattern consisting of dots of uniform size and
arrangement; also fig., attrib. or as adj., and as v. trans.; hence polka-dotted adj.

"Polka Dot Jersey". www.letour.fr. Retrieved 3 March 2021.

"Embroidered Polka Dots Lace Top". www.joycard.gr. Retrieved 15 November 2016.

Lylynguyen. ""Queen of Polka dots" holds exhibit in Vietnam". VX Art News. Archived from the original
on 23 October 2013. Retrieved 13 May 2014.

Nachmann, Ron (3 January 2012). "Of obliteration and polka dots: films on the vividly obsessive art of
Yayoi Kusama". Dangerous Minds. Retrieved 13 May 2014.

"Jazz Standards Songs and Instrumentals (Polka Dots and Moonbeams)". www.jazzstandards.com.
Retrieved 2018-01-23.

Gregory May (2008-10-17), The Polka-Dot Polka, archived from the original on 2021-12-12, retrieved
2018-10-24

The Gang's All Here, retrieved 2017-09-25

Further reading

Peacock, John (2007). Fashion Since 1900: The Complete Sourcebook. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-
51345-7

Stewart, Jude (2010). "Seeing Spots: From lepers to paranoia, the twisted history of the polka dot" Slate

Welters, Linda and Cunningham, Patricia A. (eds.) (2005). Twentieth-century American Fashion. Berg.
ISBN 1-84520-072-1
vte

Fabric

Categories: PatternsDot patternsPolka

This page was last edited on 31 May 2023, at 01:59 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0; additional terms may
apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered
trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

Privacy policyAbout WikipediaDisclaimersContact WikipediaCode of ConductMobile

viewDevelopersStatisticsCookie statementWikimedia FoundationPowered by MediaWiki