Country music legend and philanthropist Dolly Parton has died aged 80, prompting an outpouring of grief around the world.
Throughout her career, the Tennessee-born star embraced a bold country-glam style wearing rhinestone-encrusted outfits and sequinned jumpsuits.
The singer, who died on Tuesday after a “brief battle with cancer”, was known for her extravagant aesthetic, towering blonde hair and self-deprecating approach to glamour.
Here’s a look back at some of Parton’s most iconic fashion moments.
1969: The beginning of country glamour
By the late Sixties, the foundations of Dolly Parton’s signature look were already firmly in place, featuring her platinum bouffant, cinched waist, plunging neckline and a liberal dose of sparkle and sequins.
Pictured alongside American country singer Porter Wagoner in 1969, the pair had been working together since Parton joined The Porter Wagoner Show in 1967, when she was still in her early 20s.
Wagoner himself was known for his rhinestone-studded western suits and blond pompadour. Ukrainian-American designer Nudie Cohn, whose rhinestone-studded “Nudie suits” helped define the look of country music, began making clothes for Wagoner in the early Sixties. One circa-1969 Nudie jacket was even worn on the cover of Wagoner and Parton’s album Always, Always.
Parton provided a traditionally hyper-feminine counterpoint to his rhinestone cowboy look, favouring figure-hugging dresses, high heels and enormous blonde hair.
1973: Pretty in pink
Performing at the Cordell Hull Dam dedication in Tennessee in October 1973, Parton looked every inch the Seventies star in a pale pink trouser suit with flared legs and bell sleeves.
The decade’s platform shoes were a firm favourite of Parton’s, who opted for the more glamorous disco style of the period as opposed to its relaxed, bohemian approach to dressing.
It was during the Seventies where Parton found her love for hourglass, fit-and-flare silhouettes, that soon became integral to her image.
The Seventies were pivotal for Parton. The following year, in 1974, brought her hits Jolene and I Will Always Love You, as Parton prepared to leave her professional partnership with Wagoner and pursue her solo career.
1978: The Playboy bunny
Perhaps no image better demonstrates Parton’s understanding of fashion as a publicity tool than her 1978 Playboy cover.
Wearing the magazine’s black bunny corset, ears, cuffs, tights and rhinestone bow tie, Parton became the first country singer to appear on the cover. She declined to pose nude, later explaining that the appearance was another way of trying to take herself into the mainstream.
The costume was made for Parton by costume designer Patricia Taylor, the mother of actor Keanu Reeves.
Parton later recalled that Taylor did “a lot” of her clothes during the period. Reeves even revealed that, as a teenager, he once wore Parton’s original bunny costume for Halloween.
The look arrived as Parton was successfully crossing over from Nashville into mainstream American pop culture. Rather than minimising the exaggerated sexuality that had sometimes made her an outsider in country music, she turned it into an asset.
1980 : Dolly goes to the office in 9 to 5
Parton’s Hollywood debut required something the star hadn’t had to grapple with before in her career: toning down Dolly Parton.
As Doralee Rhodes in the film 9 to 5, alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, Parton swapped rhinestone stagewear for the secretary wardrobe of the time.
Sporting a blouse and pencil skirt for the promotional pictures, the outfit’s construction is still very Dolly. Featuring a narrowing towards the waist to exaggerate the hourglass proportions, Parton doesn’t look out of place in corporate-wear. Her signature bouffant hair, meanwhile, remains.
The film nevertheless became one of the defining moments of Parton’s career, while the title song she wrote for it became a hit in its own right.
1984: Rhinestones for Rhinestone
If ever there was a film title designed for Dolly Parton’s wardrobe, it was the 1984 comedy-musical, Rhinestone.
At the film’s premiere alongside her co-star Sylvester Stallone, Parton wore black tailoring over a plunging, silver-sequinned bodice.
A glittering bow choker, earrings and enormous blonde curls completed an outfit that sat somewhere between Hollywood red-carpet dressing and her usual stage costume.
By this point Parton’s clothes had become almost inseparable from her public persona. She no longer simply wore rhinestones; rhinestones signalled Dolly.
1988: More is more at the People’s Choice Awards
Parton reached peak Eighties glamour at the People’s Choice Awards in 1988.
Her white gown was almost entirely obscured beneath its embellishment: pearls and crystals cover the bodice and sleeves, while beaded fringe cascaded from the hips and hem.
She accessorised with pearl-drop earrings, sparkling open-toed heels and, elsewhere that evening, a white fur wrap and embellished clutch. Even her pink acrylic nails seem part of the colour palette.
Unlike many stars on the red carpet, Parton relied more on the look of a gown as opposed to its designer label. Her image was not built by cycling through the major designers, but relied on specialist costume makers and collaborators who understood how to reproduce and refine the proportions she wanted.
The outfit was suitably triumphant. Parton took home two People’s Choice Awards that night: Favourite Female Performer in a New TV Show for Dolly and Favourite All-Around Female Entertainer.
1995: Dollywood dressing
By the Nineties, Parton’s distinctive image had expanded into something bigger than a stage persona.
Pictured at her theme park Dollywood, Tennessee in 1995, she wears a red-and-white patterned fitted jacket with black capri pants, red earrings and matching peep-toe heels.
Standing beside a cherry red Fifties convertible beneath a Dollywood sign, Parton almost appears dressed as an extension of her own brand.
The theme park had opened under the Dollywood name in 1986 after Parton entered into partnership with the Herschend family, bringing her name and investment back to the region where she grew up.
And 1995 brought another important development in the Dolly legacy. That year she launched her Imagination Library, initially sending free books to children in her native Sevier County, Tennessee, inspired by her father, who could not read or write. The programme would eventually expand internationally.
2006: The Canadian tuxedo gets Dolly-fied
Denim-on-denim sounds comparatively pared-back to Parton’s usual style.
But in 2006, she appeared in a cropped denim jacket and matching capri jeans, both scattered with crystals, over a black rhinestone corset.
A silver heart chain hangs around her hips, enormous hoops frame her face and high peep-toe heels bring in Parton’s usual fashion favourites.
The year also provides a turning point in Parton’s wardrobe, as Steve Summers became creative director of Dolly Parton Enterprises in 2006.
Summers and his team would go on to oversee Parton’s highly specialised wardrobe, creating and customising hundreds of ensembles while maintaining the basic codes she had established decades earlier.
The Canadian tuxedo might have belonged to everybody else; the corset, crystals, heels and proportions made this one hers.
2014: Rhinestones at Glastonbury
Parton arrived at Glastonbury in 2014 ready to make her festival debut. Performing on the Pyramid Stage, she wore a white, crystal-covered trouser ensemble with sheer sections and a fitted waist designed by Steve Summers – with a matching rhinestone-covered guitar.
It is one of the clearest examples of the work of Summers and the team responsible for her later wardrobe.
The look also demonstrates that beneath the apparent excess, Parton’s costumes were designed with practicality in mind. The trousers allowed her to sit, stand, play instruments and move around the stage, while retaining the visual impact of a gown.
Parton’s Glastonbury appearance became one of the defining performances of her later career, bringing songs including Jolene, 9 to 5 and I Will Always Love You to another generation.
2025: Full-circle Dolly
More than half a century after that photograph with Porter Wagoner, the fundamentals remained remarkably intact.
At the Nashville premiere of Dolly: A True Original Musical in 2025, Parton appeared in blush-pink gown covered with pearls and crystals.
The embellishment traces the body like corsetry, drawing attention towards the waist before erupting into dense silver fringe around the hips. A feather-trimmed, asymmetric chiffon skirt adds movement, while a crystal choker, drop earrings, pink nails and towering platform heels complete the look.
By this point, Parton’s wardrobe operated according to an extraordinarily established system. Summers has described a world of custom-made clothes and shoes, with his team producing around 300 ensembles a year and maintaining an archive containing Parton’s clothing dating back to 1964.
It’s clear that Parton spent decades perfecting the same idea. A tiny waist, enormous blonde hair, crystals and unapologetic artificiality became so recognisable that eventually they ceased to look like trends at all. But simply became synonymous with Dolly Parton.
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