You know me and research. Here's the scoop on polka dots......
- The Lega people of Western Africa hold a manhood right of passage, where a young man painted in white dots, knocks persistently on a polka-dotted door until it opens.
- In Medieval Europe, irregular spots on fabrics reminded people of skin blemishes and diseases. Dotted patterns didn't become popular until machines could make them perfectly spaced.
- It's not certain whether the modern term 'polka dot' comes from the polka dance craze that swept through Europe in the mid-19th century. The dance is Bohemian in origin. Some say polka comes from the Czech pulka which means 'half,' referring to the polka dance's small steps.
- Remember dotted Swiss fabric?
- In Spanish dots are called little moons.
- The term 'polka dots' to refer to a spotted fabric first appeared in 1857 in a Philadelphia-based women's magazine.
- Frank Sinatra's first hit in 1940, "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" captured the polka dot trend of the era.
- Polka dot clothing hit the runways of Paris in the 1940s when Christian Dior debued his New Look line featuring heavily dotted fabric.
- All of us baby boomers remember Brian Hyland's "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini."
- In 1961, Disney debuted a new polka dotted outfit for Minnie Mouse.
- Mister Polka-Dot was a character in a 1962 comic. He wore a skin-tight costume covered in colorful polka dots that would swell up into deadly weapons at the push of a button. He used a getaway car called the Flying Polka Dot.
- How about the polka dots on the Wonder Bread sack.
- There's even a Polka-Dot Wasp Moth that's native to the Caribbean Islands.
- In the original production of Adventures of Raggedy Ann and Andy, Ann is wearing a polka dot dress.
Have to stop to think if I have any polka-dot clothes. Yup, have a navy blue nautical-look top with small white polka dots. Do you have any polka dots in your closet?