ISLAND STYLE
'50s style polka dots are popping out this spring

By Paula Rath
Advertiser Staff Writer

Jessica Swartz of Kapolei models an Audrey Hepburn look from White House/Black Market. The cotton circle-skirt dress is $98 and the suede/canvas bag is $58. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

Agnes B.'s contribution to the polka-dot craze is a crinkle cotton long-sleeved shirt for $148.

Undoubtedly, Julianne Moore's radiant performance as a chic 1950s suburban wife in "Far from Heaven" and "The Hours" did much to influence the current resurgence in mid-century styles.

Fashion designers and retailers, including Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs, Emanuel Ungaro, St. John and Louis Vuitton, are putting polka dots on everything from full-skirted dresses and Bardot-like bikinis to hosiery and stilettos.

Island retailers are buying up the look in the hope that Hawai'i consumers will take to the lighthearted trend.

Donna Karan embraced the polka dot in a big way for her spring/summer 2003 collection. At DKNY Ala Moana, a body-slimming man's button-front shirt comes in beige splashed with pink polka dots. A cotton piqué below-the-knee gored skirt is all-over black and white polka dots ($228), while a sexy see-through silk ruched halter top ($148) offers a more contemporary take.

Also at DKNY, a drop-waist dress with princess seams and spaghetti straps spans the decades from the '20s to the '50s in fresh brown and beige polka dots ($428).

Karan also created a new take on the twin set: a smocked tube top. For spring it comes in — what else — polka dots ($148). A deconstructed T-shirt sports bright orange and coral spots ($50).

At Last Resort in Kailua, polka dots go punk in a strapless dress by Stop Staring ($60) and platform sandals by Demonia ($31).

For a characteristic Cinnamon Girl look, designer Jonelle Fujita designed a baby doll-style empire waist rayon sundress with pink and white polka dots ($65).

On the toe end of fashion, C. June Shoes in Ward Warehouse is bursting with polka dots on pumps and sandals in red, black and white, at a wide range of prices. They look like the sexy shoes Bardot might have worn with a kicky little dress at Cannes.

Arden B. is all over polka dots, using the print for garments and as a ribbon embellishment. Strapless tops and camisoles in pink and black polka dots are embellished with delicate lace ($68). A black and white polyester spaghetti strap blouse is trimmed with polka dot satin ribbon ($48), while the same ribbon is used to dress up a simple black skirt ($88), dusty pink skirt ($98) and white camisole ($49).

Macy's youthful "ThIsIt" department showed short asymmetrical skirts with a Latino flair ($42) and long, smocked crinkle rayon skirts ($48), both by Rampage, in black and white polka dots.

Hip line Loyandford, at Rafael, combined the currently popular look of the unfinished seam (so the silk looks as though it was fed through a serger but pulled out just in the nick of time) with polka dots, for a contemporary blouse ($240) and skirt ($285).

White House/Black Market went all-out '50s with a spaghetti-strap cotton dress with a full circle skirt in black with white polka dots ($98). It even has a tote to match, in canvas and suede with a single big polka dot on each side ($58).

In the subtly chic manner of the French, Agnes B. has a fresh, cotton-crinkle long-sleeved ($148) and short-sleeved ($140) shirt with pointy collar in turquoise, olive and cobalt polka dots on white.

At Neiman Marcus, Marc Jacobs, the designer being credited with the most extensive collection of '50s-inspired pieces this season, employed polka dots in a crinkled silk dress with cap sleeves, a fitted waist and row of tiny buttons ($288). Very Kim Novak, á la "Picnic."

Will island women take to polka dots this season?

Retailers are crossing their fingers as they tie on their June Cleaver aprons.