The Trend Cycle’s Gone Dotty: Can My Personal Style Survive Polka Dot Fatigue?

It happened to me: Something I love was eaten up by the trend cycle, and spat out onto the algorithm. We’ve gone dotty for polka dots—on every cool girl GRWM, fast fashion ad on the subway, and sponsored ad on my FYP.

Polka dots crept back in as an essential with Miu Miu’s fall 2023 show, where Muccia Prada sent frizzy-haired, disheveled librarian Mia Goth down the runway in a sheer polka dot skirt, tights tucked into her gray knit cardigan. For the spring summer 2025 shows, polka dots arrived via Jacquemus and Acne Studios, and emerged once again for fall winter 2025 with Altuzarra, Fendi, and Brandon Maxwell. Looking forward to resort 2026, the polka dot parade shows no sign of letting up.

Unlike its contemporary girly spirit, the print has a kind of freaky backstory. In Medieval times, dots were considered a bad omen for disease. The pattern first appeared more positively in the western world around the mid-19th century with the industrial revolution—less plagues going on, more precise pattern-making—in tandem with the polka dance craze that gave it a name. The ‘dotted swiss,’ (a term still used for a sheer, dotty fabric today) came first, as well as the French variation ‘quinconce’ and in German, as ‘thalertupfen.’ Women’s lifestyle magazine Godey’s Lady’s Book was the first to use the term polka dot in its 1857 issue: “Scarf of muslin, for light summer wear, surrounded by a scalloped edge, embroidered in rows of round polka dots.”

Through the ’30s into the ’50s, polka dots reached a new print icon status: through flouncy skirts and scarves, Disney’s redesign of Minnie Mouse in her now signature polka dot dress and matching bow, Marilyn Monroe in dotted swimwear and Audrey Hepburn’s vacation style, and Christian Dior’s post-war ‘New Look’ silhouettes, where the print reflected both innocence and sartorial rebellion. Fast forward to John Galliano’s tenure at Maison Margiela, where he proposed displaced, cut out polka dots on fluid fabrics. It has been a lifelong signature print for Comme des Garçons under Rei Kawakubo, also inspired by the surrealist dots of formidable, fashion favorite artist Yayoi Kusama. Today, the dot is a calling card for brands playing with femininity and youth, like Sandy Liang.

I have long loved a polka dot, from dotty sets my mom made for me as a toddler to a short-lived MySpace scene queen era with ’40s-esque polka dot tea dresses cinched with studded belts and neon accessories. Today, I love my Lucila Safdie polka dot headband, silk Hai skirt, Fruity Booty tanks in two colorways, vintage Moschino two-piece with fat metallic dots.

And while I’ve been committedly dialled into the dot, I’m experiencing some trend fear and fatigue. Could polka dots at fever pitch put me off such a key part of my personal style? The tyrannical trend cycle has pummelled our personal tastes, and it can be difficult in the era of doom-scrolling (and doom-shopping) to know what’s you, and what’s contoured by the content machine.

For Reese Blutstein, an Atlanta-based style influencer and polka dot purveyor, the print is a neutral. “You can style almost anything with it,” she says. “I like versatility. It’s something you can style over and over and reinvent it. I like wearing polka dots with the shade of red—red, white, and black just speaks to my eye.” A scroll through Blutstein’s Instagram grid and you’ll see polka dots paired with red knit sweaters, or pastel pink cardis and mint green ballet flats. What appeals to Blutstein is polka dots across the spectrum: dainty, small dots for a “very feminine look” or big, bold polka dots for contrast, depth, and complexity.

“I think I do pay attention to trends, but I only take what I truly already enjoy wearing,” Blutstein says. “I don’t think trends are a bad thing—they actually help so many people decide what to wear if that’s not their forte. But, I think the best way to follow trends is to focus on what [it is] about it [that’s] true to your style, add in and take away as you see fit.”

Prior to the polka dot pick-up in 2023, London-based style content creator Susie Lola didn’t care much for it. “The smaller polka dot print always reminded me of 1940s or 1950s fashion, Betty Boop, and rails of white and red polka dot dresses that filled the racks of typical vintage stores,” she explains, “and the larger polka dots, paired with contrasting colors, reminded me of the 2010s and the fashion on Skins…I saw it as a thing of the past and something that didn’t feel very stylish to me.” It was seeing the likes of Devon Lee Carlson and Luvyute style the print in a modern, subversive way that got Susie onto it. Now, it’s an added fun flair to an outfit, timeless, and chic. “Now I can’t see a time where I won’t have at least one piece in my wardrobe covered in polka dots,” she adds. Her selection of polka dot prints runs the gamut: she often wears secondhand polka dot ballet pumps from Depop, and keeps an essential Nina Bow dotty tote bag that’s both a great beach accessory and a statement piece to pop against enveloping winter coats. Susie also reps the elevated cult dresses of Réalisation Par, a brand that capitalized on the print early, as well as a hot pink bikini from British indie label NiiHAi. A trend so vast, Susie makes it work for all color combos and moments to dress up.

“I think the older I get the more sure of my personal style I become,” Susie says. “I am a lot better at asking myself: do I really need this? Is there really a place for this in my wardrobe?” Being online and seeing a piece constantly pop up on your Pinterest or IG explore page can, too, stem “the craving for it.” Regular wardrobe clear outs and a private Pinterest board of her aesthetic keeps her true to herself. When in doubt? Call on a faithful fashion friend. “I love going shopping with my friend Ruby as we share a lot of the same views on clothes, but are more style cousins than sisters—so both do a great job at bringing each other down to earth on a piece, if it will just last a moment in our wardrobe, not a lifetime.”

Susamusa’s first polka dot “Meadow Skirt” sample was made in March 2024, and launched in August as part of the London brand’s Barely There collection—no doubt you’ll have seen it on the streets of London or on your FYP. “Honestly, it’s been a challenge just keeping it in stock even through winter,” says founder Asal Tehrani. At one point, there were over 6,000 people on the skirt’s waitlist. Nothing makes Tehrani happier than seeing Susa in real life—and she sees the Meadow a lot.

It’s a brand that hopes to be timeless, and Tehrani looks to vintage prints and clothes for inspiration: “I wanted to make something playful which also had a sense of longevity to it, and as soon as I saw the sheer polka dot fabric I knew we had to use it.”

The brand releases two-three small collections a year and doesn’t follow the traditional fashion seasons, making it more product focused. For example, Tehrani says they’ve just put a piece into production that was originally first sampled two years ago. Slow, considered, the polka dot runs deep for Suamusa. While Tehrani agrees we’re at peak polka dot, it’s in Susamusa’s sartorial DNA. “When designing for Susa, the first thing I’m asking myself is: ‘are the girls going to love and wear the pieces in a year, five, or 10 years down the line?’”

Rose Canham founded her brand Of Planet Earth in 2022, shortly after graduating from Central Saint Martins. She releases limited collections and often works with deadstock fabric, so stripes and polka dots have always been prevalent. Of Planet Earth introduces polka dots layered with different textures and unexpected colours, ruching, and subversive shapes. The brand’s classic, cult fave Pompei top is available in various dotty fabrics. “When we cut the silhouette from those fabrics, the dots shifted across the body in really striking ways,” explains Canham. “It was totally unplanned, but we loved the effect.”

“I think people are always drawn to pieces that feel familiar but have been reimagined in a modern, interesting way. Polka dots carry that perfect sense of nostalgia, yet can be used in ways that feel contemporary and unexpected.” Designing is an “instinctive approach,” rather than “chasing trends.”

Eloise Bloomfield launched her brand Squeeze in June 2025, a silk and cotton brand inspired by her grandmother, who made her and her siblings nightwear. Her sheer polka dot set takes its cues from One Hundred and One Dalmatians.

“I think in this day and age, consumers are backing their purchasing habits with emotions—I personally am,” says Bloomfield. “The Squeeze polka dot sheer set is your perfect Euro beach vibe or London mid-winter layer piece…I reached for polka dots five years ago, and I know I’ll continue to reach for them in the next five years,” she adds. “Trend cycles are vicious, so in creating my pieces, I used natural fibers and skilled local fashion ateliers to ensure what I am creating [has] longevity.”

Today, the subversion of the polka dot is the sweet spot. For some designers, the print is no nostalgia play, but an opportunity to interrogate what’s classic and timeless through sustainable fabrics, subversive shapes, and expanding the dotty expanse itself. The polka dot, as Bloomfield says, is “the new little black dress.”