Polka dots can be spotted everywhere this summer, from Louis Vuitton to Balenciaga and on Kendall Jenner, Kate Middleton

The polka dot, once a sign of plague and pestilence in the Middle Ages, is seeing a fashion resurgence this summer and can be spotted on celebs everywhere

Polka dots have been seen on the catwalks of fashion houses like Louis Vuitton and Balenciaga and worn by the Duchess of Cambridge and Kendall Jenner

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Kate Middleton and Minnie Mouse are both fans of polka dots. Polka dot prints can be spotted everywhere in fashion this summer. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 6:15pm, 8 Aug 2022

Few prints have had such a dramatic rehabilitation as the polka dot.

This summer, you will have spotted (sorry) the not-so-humble pattern on the Duchess of Cambridge, Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, and an array of actresses and celebrities. Rewind 800 years, though, and the wearing of spotted textiles would have seen them shunned.

In the plague-ridden Middle Ages, spots were seen as ominous: the opposite of health and vitality, they spoke of smallpox and the Black Death – to the extent that small pieces of dotted fabric were hung above doors to signify an infected household.

In Africa, spots had the opposite connotation and were used as a sign of power and virility. “Male initiation rites often used dots to signify strength, probably because of their association with the leopard,” says fashion historian Cassidy Zachary.

Anna Wintour attends Balenciaga Spring 2023 at the New York Stock Exchange in 2022. Photo: Getty Images

In Europe, the legacy of the plague endured until the Industrial Revolution, when manufacturers began to roller print fabric, making the mass production of spots possible. Suddenly the humble dot became an ultra modern motif.