

INSPIRED BY | dotted


A printed subject study :
Polka Dots, or Lunares (Spanish, translates to "little moons").
01. The term Polka Dot comes from the polka dance craze that swept through Europe in the mid-19th century. The word “polka” itself comes from the Polish for “Polish woman” — in Czech, it translates to “little woman or girl.” Which makes sense, given the polka dots inherently feminine feel. |
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Miss America 1926, Norma Des Cygne Smallwood, in one of the first polka dot "bikini's". |
02. The term “polka dots” to refer to a spotted fabric first appeared in print in 1857 in Godey’s Lady’s Book, a Philadelphia-based women’s magazine of the time period, but appeared mainly on accessories until post-war when machines helped to make the dots evenly spaced. |
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Frank Sinatra's first hit, recorded with jazz musician Tommy Dorsey in 1940, was a song called “Polka Dots and Moonbeams.” |
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A dream dotted scenario photographed by Richard Avedon for Harper’s Bazaar, 1949. |
03. Polka dots hit haute couture status when Christian Dior used them in his infamous New Look collection, which Vogue called, "an unblushing plan to make women extravagantly, romantically, eyelash-battingly female”. The polka dot dress was Dior’s best-selling New Look piece in 1954. |
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Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell at Graumans Chinese Theatre, 1953. |
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In 1960 Brian Hyland's proto-Playboy anthem about a shy voluptuous girl who wins mens' hearts (and in-turn the hearts of polka dot lovers everywhere). | Bob Dylan donned a green polka dot shirt on the cover of his single "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" in 1964. A ballad of a thin, dot-loving man. |
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Bridget Bardot during the filming of Viva Maria, 1965. |
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Twiggy in Empire polka-dot organdy dress, from Dior's 1968 Spring. |
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Janet Chandler front and center for Balmain, 1987 . |
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Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, 1990. |
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Shop Maria Stanley polka dots |
