Dolly Parton has made an entire career out of not only her stunning vocals and stellar songwriting, but her unique – and sparkling – fashion sense. The 73-year-old can most often be seen in shimmering, sometimes short dresses, usually with her trademark pantyhose and high heel shoes. But Parton insists she isn’t any kind of fashion icon, but only someone who has learned to wear what makes her the happiest.
“I always laugh when think about me as [a fashion icon],” Parton told Glamour. “I have good people. If I’ve got any kind of fashion sense that’s because of Steve Summers and the other people that dress me. I just like to shine. I like to be sparkly … Everybody should just be themselves. You should be your own individual self and wear whatever makes you feel good.”
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Parton has learned over the years that fashion isn’t what is in style, but what makes someone feel comfortable – advice she tries to share with others.
“If you want to wear a lot of makeup or no makeup or a little makeup, if you want to wear a gaudy sweater like me, wear a gaudy sweater,” Parton said. “If you don’t, wear simple, beautiful stuff like you. I just think everybody should base how they live in this world with what they’re comfortable with. I may make some people uncomfortable with the way I look because of their ideas about fashion and beauty.
“But if I’m comfortable in myself, not only in my own skin but in my own clothes, then something’s going to radiate from me that’s going to make other people feel comfortable with me,” she continued. “I think people should do what’s best for them and not try to be fashionable and not try to dress like this one or that one.”
Parton might be one of the most successful artists of all time, but that doesn’t mean she is going to blow her budget on new clothes for herself.
“I’m too stingy to be fashionable,” Parton joked. “Ain’t no way I’m going to spend the kind of money some people do, to spend $2,000 on one coat when I could buy 14 for the same money and in different colors! I don’t care because I like them, no matter what the cost.”
Parton might be an unintentional role model for others, when it comes to dressing the way you want, but she got her look in an unlikely way.
“There was a town tramp in our little town, where everybody said she was,” Parton recalled on Late Night with Seth Meyers. “I thought she prettiest thing I’d ever seen. She had this big yellow hair, high-heeled shoes, red nails. When I was little, we were just country kids, and we went to town, I’d see her and I’d just be fascinated.”
Photo Credit: Getty / Jason LaVeris
