Dolly Parton’s big hair and bedazzled looks made her a fashion icon

For the cover of her “Jolene” album, Parton modeled a striped jumpsuit by Nashville seamstress Lucy Adams.

“I felt comfortable,” the superstar told Vogue, adding that the look had to be “moveable” so she could try a variety of poses. “And I always loved puffy sleeves.” Getty Images

Parton’s always gravitated toward sky-high hair and sparkles, once telling Jimmy Fallon that she drew her early style inspiration from “the town trollop.”

I thought she was the most beautiful thing, because she had all this makeup, hair, tight clothes and everything I wanted,” she explained. Redferns

“I might’ve put this together myself!” Parton told Vogue of her casual shirt-and-jeans combo for her “Here You Come Again” album cover.

“I would imagine someone probably said, ‘Why don’t you do a little Marilyn [Monroe] look?’ Marilyn Manson, more like it!” Getty Images

Parton was the first country music star to cover Playboy, though she chose not to pose nude.

“People have thought I’d be a lot further along in this business if I dressed more stylish and didn’t wear all this gaudy getup. Record companies have tried to change me. I just refused,” she told the magazine.

“I have to look the way I choose to look, and this is what I’ve chose. It makes me different a little bit, and ain’t that what we all want to do: be a little different?” Getty Images

“Had I not been a girl, I definitely would have been a drag queen,” Parton told Elle in 2019.

“I like all that flamboyance. I love all that sparkle, and shine, and color.” Getty Images

For the premiere of “9 to 5,” Parton — seen here with co-stars Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda — called on the film’s costume designer, Ann Roth, for assistance.

“I thought that I needed to be fancy, and I didn’t know how to do that,” she told Vogue, adding of her pink lace gown and matching makeup, “I remember feeling really pretty. That was probably the first time that I ever felt fashionable.”
Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

For the “Rhinestone” premiere, Parton opted for an off-the-shoulder white gown with sparkling black beadwork, wanting to hold her own against co-star Sylvester Stallone.

“I knew he’d be dressed to the nines … so I tried to look my Dolly best,” she told Vogue. Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

Parton’s outfits for her namesake variety show were the picture of ‘80s power dressing.

“Tony [Chase, the show’s costume designer] was always trying to put me in all these clothes that had these big ol’ shoulders,” she recalled during her Vogue interview. “I said, ‘Tony, you gotta tone it down a little. There ain’t nothing big about me but my mouth and my boobs!’” Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images

Chase designed all of Parton’s looks for her “Saturday Night Live” debut, during which she served as both host and musical guest.

“My look is not easy,” she told Vogue of her typically outré costumes. “I don’t just put on a shirt to do something.” NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

“I know that I always like to wear a lot of makeup — more than probably I should wear. But I think more is more, and whoever made up that ‘less is more’ is full of it.” Getty Images

Parton wowed the Glastonbury crowd in this “wonderful” white embellished getup designed by longtime collaborator Steve Summers.

“I love to work in pants … I’m up and down, so it’s hard for me to work in a glamorous dress,” she told Vogue. “So Steve designed this outfit that had all the glamour of a dress.” WireImage

“The dress took forever to make and it took many different people,” Summers told Sounds Like Nashville of Parton’s gown for her special Grammys duet with goddaughter Miley Cyrus, which featured a sheer cape worthy of a style superhero. Getty Images for The Recording Academy