I didn't know that the modernist architect Alfred Loos considered patterns and other eye-catching ornaments to be tools of the hegemonic imperialist status quo, but that's probably just me. I also did ...

Polka dots are so fun to wear and definitely add a graphic element to any ensemble, but maybe you’ve always wondered how they came to be—or where the name even originated from. For you curious fashion ...

Can a pattern make you happier? Yayoi Kusama thinks so. Of polka dots, her signature motif, the spot-obsessed Japanese artist wrote: “They scatter proliferating love in the universe and raise my mind ...

The meaning of polka dots has been associated with disease, dancing and crime.(Pete/Flickr/Public Domain) From the vague suggestion of leprosy to feared Canadian bank ...

Because they make me happy. They actually have a reputation for doing that. It’s true. Polka dots hearken to the 1950s and suggest simplicity, fun and cheerfulness. But it hasn’t always been so. In ...

The 19th-century European immigrants to Wisconsin arrived with polkas ringing in their ears. The polka, a lively couples dance in 2/4 time, had developed from folk roots and became a European popular ...

Glance around any department store and you’ll find a veritable buffet of textile patterns that you can rattle off without a second thought: plaid, stripes, paisley, seersucker, fleur-de-lis. Each ...