Art Attack Black White Polka Dot Print Biker Bandanna Stretch Workout Headband Soft, light & breatheable material makes it comfortable to wear in the summer. Great for festivals and parties The polka dot may be a ubiquitous feature of dresses, bikinis, and twee collegiate bedspreads in the modern era, but as patterns go, it hasn't been around for that long. The eye-popping pattern gets its name from the polka music craze that engulfed Europe in the mid-1800s. Dotted patterns didn't become popular until there were machines that could make them perfectly spaced. In Medieval Europe, irregular spots on fabrics would have reminded people of skin blemishes and of the blood-spotted handkerchiefs that signaled the onset of tuberculosis, University of Cambridge historian Steven Connor tells Stewart. Frank Sinatra's first hit, recorded with jazz musician Tommy Dorsey in 1940, was a song called "Polka Dots and Moonbeams."