Not Stripes, Not Plaid—Cool Girls Are Pulling This Print Trend Out of "Dated" Purgatory For Spring

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Elle Fanning Polka Dot Skirt
(Image credit: Backgrid)

Polka dots were everywhere in 2025 but who says they're not allowed to be everywhere in 2026? When a pattern is good, it's good. And polka dots are good.

What makes the print so versatile is that it's whimsical and fun. Back in the 2010s it was strongly associated with twee but now it's more likely to call to mind an image of Miu Miu. You no longer have to wear them with an owl necklace and pair of ballet flats, which was demonstrated flawlessly by Elle Fanning.

Elle Fanning polka dot skirt

(Image credit: Backgrid)

The actress whose show Margo's Got Money Troubles comes out next week, was seen leaving a screening wearing a polka dot skirt from Rabanne's Fall 2026 collection with a red Bottega Veneta 1979 bag and a pair of Paris Text patent leather slingback pumps. The entire look served as a reminder that polka dots don't have an expiration date and that we should all be wearing more of them going into the rest of the year.

Shop the polka dot skirt trend, below.

Tara Gonzalez
Tara Gonzalez
Senior Fashion & Social Editor

Tara Gonzalez is a senior fashion and social editor at WhoWhatWear. where she is interested in exploring the intersection of fashion and culture and why we are drawn to wearing the things we wear and what that says about the world we live in. Previously she worked as a senior fashion editor at Harper's Bazaar. When she isn't writing trend deep dives for WWW, she's working on her newsletter on Substack, Cult Classic, which explores the very best fashion in film and television. She has a degree in creative writing from The University of Pennsylvania. She lives in Brooklyn with her boyfriend and pug Bjork, the later of which has a very extensive collection of dog-sized Sandy Liang sweaters.