Adorned in rhinestones and elevating her 5-foot stature with sky-high heels and voluminous blonde wigs, Dolly Parton often joked, "it costs a lot of money to look this cheap!"
Parton's looks on stage and off reflected both her Tennessee roots and her embodiment of over-the-top feminine glamour, an aesthetic articulated in her album **** le and self-anointed nickname "Backwoods Barbie." She was rarely seen without long acrylic nails, a full face of makeup, and heapings of glitter.
The prolific musician, actor and philanthropist, who died on Tuesday at 80 years old, always had a tongue-in-cheek response to criticisms about her larger-than-life sense of style. She quipped about her hair being a fire hazard, would play her hit '9 to 5' with nothing but her fire red acrylic nails as the instrument, and she unabashedly loved flashy clothes: shoulder pads, plunging necklines, a cinched waist, lace were all sartorial non-negotiables for the singer. But she paired it with a keen sense of self-awareness that only made her devout fanbase love her more.
Parton's massive, voluminous blonde wigs were classic Dolly — and, she once joked, a "fire hazard." - Richard McCaffrey/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
"When I moved to Nashville in 1964, I already had some ideas about what I wanted to look like onstage — and off," she wrote in her book "Behind the Seams" in 2023. "Country stars had to have big hair and some sparkles, and you had to have a Cadillac. I had the big hair but not yet the Cadillac — or enough sparkles." She related to the clothes worn by famous fixtures on stage of the Grand Ole Opry, like Jean Shepard and didn't shy away from the unconventional things that influenced her, telling People she even took inspiration from the famously risqué Frederick's of Hollywood catalogs she flipped through when she was young.
#FIRE #voluminous #look
Parton's looks on stage and off reflected both her Tennessee roots and her embodiment of over-the-top feminine glamour, an aesthetic articulated in her album **** le and self-anointed nickname "Backwoods Barbie." She was rarely seen without long acrylic nails, a full face of makeup, and heapings of glitter.
The prolific musician, actor and philanthropist, who died on Tuesday at 80 years old, always had a tongue-in-cheek response to criticisms about her larger-than-life sense of style. She quipped about her hair being a fire hazard, would play her hit '9 to 5' with nothing but her fire red acrylic nails as the instrument, and she unabashedly loved flashy clothes: shoulder pads, plunging necklines, a cinched waist, lace were all sartorial non-negotiables for the singer. But she paired it with a keen sense of self-awareness that only made her devout fanbase love her more.
Parton's massive, voluminous blonde wigs were classic Dolly — and, she once joked, a "fire hazard." - Richard McCaffrey/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
"When I moved to Nashville in 1964, I already had some ideas about what I wanted to look like onstage — and off," she wrote in her book "Behind the Seams" in 2023. "Country stars had to have big hair and some sparkles, and you had to have a Cadillac. I had the big hair but not yet the Cadillac — or enough sparkles." She related to the clothes worn by famous fixtures on stage of the Grand Ole Opry, like Jean Shepard and didn't shy away from the unconventional things that influenced her, telling People she even took inspiration from the famously risqué Frederick's of Hollywood catalogs she flipped through when she was young.
#FIRE #voluminous #look
2 days ago
