Embrace the dot
If you’ve been following fashion trends long enough, you already know there’s nothing new in this world. The same colours, fabrics and styles come through every few years. Skirt lengths rise one season to dip the next, and then rise again. Consider the flared jeans of the Seventies or the padded shoulders of the Eighties. They’re back—on the ramp and off it. Of course, not every trend is popular with everyone. Fashionistas typically pick and choose from trending styles and colours to match their personality and body type.
Only the polka dot seems to buck that trend. The playful pattern is currently as popular with Hollywood A-listers as it is with the girl shopping at the fast fashion store next door. Remember Margot ‘Barbie’ Robbie? She showed up at the Palm Springs Film Festival earlier this year in a pale pink polka-dotted mini dress and shoes. Actor Phoebe Waller-Bridge attended the London premiere of her film If wearing
a pinstriped suit and an asymmetrical, sheer polka-dotted crop top. In India, high street shoppers are choosing between a Zara white polka mini skirt with gathered details, an H&M pleated polka chiffon skirt and a white dotted Nicobar racerback dress in blue.
If there’s one big difference between today’s polka-dotted offerings and the earlier outfits (yes, even the chocolate-coloured dress Julia Roberts wore in Pretty Woman), it lies in the former’s fashion-forward, sexy details.
It started from the SS 24 ramps, where Dolce sent out seductively-sheer choli-like tops and flowing frocks, and Stella McCartney showed off-shoulder black top and leave-nothing-to-the-imagination crochet dresses. Dots abounded, but they were nothing like the demure pattern of yesteryear. This was polka on steroids.
And it’s made its way to the shelves at home. Check out the linen blend crop top at Zara that plunges down tantalisingly from the clavicle. For
those who prefer to keep their cleavage to themselves, the brand offers a semi-sheer polka shirt and trousers (slip optional). The high-necked black dress at H&M, demure at first glance, is a mesh bodycon dress. If it’s separates you want, the brand gives you an itsy-bitsy flouncy strappy top.
It’s too early to say how long the trend will last. But if you want a pattern with personality in your wardrobe, it may be time to go shopping.
ASAP.