You recognised her silhouette first: the voluminous blonde coiffure, the sharp acrylic talons, the perfectly lined coral lips. The legend that was Dolly Parton had a look that she’d maintained since her early days on cable television in the 1960s.
Parton—who has died at 80 years old, according to a statement released by her family—made her name on the country circuit as a kid, performing on local Tennessee radio and television stations. When she was 12 she met Johnny Cash at the Grande Ole Opry, and he convinced her to pursue her dreams.
Parton was, without question, an iconic recording artist, songwriter, philantrophist, raconteur. But one thing she long rejected was her status as a fashion icon. “I always laugh when I get called a fashion icon,” she told Vogue. “I’m more of an eyesore! Only because I overdo it.”
Nevertheless, her outfit archive was undeniably the stuff of country-glam legend. And, in a cultural landscape now littered with artists attempting to package their careers into neatly defined “eras,” there was something especially pleasing about her consistency.
In honour of the legendary life that Dolly Parton lived—and of course, her unmistakable style—revisit some pivotal moments in her early career.
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Dolly Rebecca Parton at roughly 10 years old.
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Dolly has been frank about her use of wigs, having realised early on that they were a great way to “never have a bad hair day.”
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Dolly loves flowers, describing them as “little rays of sunshine.” She famously adores roses—so much so that a species has been named after her. (Look up the Dolly Parton Tea Rose!)
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Dolly and Porter Wagoner (pictured) had an interesting relationship. They were collaborators—he invited Dolly onto his show as a musical guest in 1967, where she eventually became a regular. He ended up having a large financial stake in Parton’s career as it took off, causing friction in their partnership. Dolly wrote ‘I Will Always Love You’ about Wagoner.
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Dolly was seven when she first began playing on a homemade guitar. The following year, an uncle bought her a real one.
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Though Dolly was releasing music from the age of 19, her label initially pitched her as a cheesy pop singer, and her songs didn’t see much success. It wasn’t until she convinced them to let her release country music two years later that she began to chart.
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Posing for a portrait circa 1970.
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Hanging out with her friends and 9 to 5 co-stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin at the film’s premiere in 1980. Parton enlisted the film’s costume designer, Ann Roth, to make her a dress for the red carpet. “I remember feeling really pretty,” she told Vogue. “That was probably the first time that I ever felt fashionable.”
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“I’m short and I’m kind of curvy, so I can’t just wear things that a big, tall person would wear,” Dolly told Vogue in 2023. “I try to accent my positive things—and try to stay away from the negative ones.”
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At home in Sevierville, Tennessee, a young Dolly would rifle through Sears catalogues, developing “a country girl’s idea of what glamour was.”
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Dolly snapping a pic at Heathrow Airport before performing at the International Festival of Country Music at Wembley in 1976.
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“I feel pretty in a heel,” Dolly once told Vogue. “I loved high heels before I even knew I was going to be short. I wear heels every day. I have them custom made.”
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Posing in an ad for Hercules Tyres.
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Dolly with her co-star Sylvester Stallone at the premiere of their musical comedy Rhinestonein 1984.
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“People always ask me how long it takes to do my hair. I don’t know, I’m never there.”
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On the Phil Donahue show promoting her latest album, New Harvest… First Gathering in 1977.
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Dolly was a kid when she discovered her beauty muse. “There was this one woman, I thought she was beautiful and, you know, she had the peroxide hair and she had it all piled up on her head and had red fingernails and red lipstick and, you know, wore her powder. And I just thought she was the prettiest thing I’d ever seen. And Mama said, ‘Oh, quit looking at her. She ain’t nothing but trash’. And I thought, ‘Ooh, that’s what I want to be when I grow up—trash.’”
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On the set of her variety show, Dolly, in 1987. The show’s premiere in 1987 attracted 39 million viewers—the largest audience for any television series premiere at the time.
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“After you reach a certain age, they think you’re over. Well, I will never be over. I’ll be making records if I have to sell them out of the trunk of my car. I’ve done that in my past, and I’d do it again.”
This article was originally published on Vogue.com.
