From her sky-high blonde hair to her bedazzled, corseted outfits, Dolly Parton’s signature look has stayed consistent throughout her decades-long career. Her story about modeling her aesthetic after the “town tramp” is a famous tidbit of Dolly lore, but that choice came at a price.
And while Parton would clearly stand by her decision to dress and look the way she pleased, she admitted in a 2023 Guardian interview that some of those downsides were harder for her to stomach than others.
Dolly Parton’s Family Harshly Criticized Her Signature Look
Long before she was an international superstar, Dolly Parton was the fourth of twelve siblings growing up in a one-room cabin in rural east Tennessee. Her father was a sharecropper, her mother was a homemaker, and the family was overwhelmingly conservative and religious. Unsurprisingly, Parton’s decision to start modeling her makeup and fashion choices after a woman locals called “the town tramp” didn’t sit well with her relatives.
“I was willing to pay for it,” Parton told the Guardian, even if that meant enduring physical or verbal lashings from her grandfather, a preacher, and her father. “I didn’t like being disciplined. It hurt my feelings so bad to be scolded or whipped or whatever. But sometimes, there’s just that part of you that’s willing, if you want something bad enough, to go for it.”
Ironically, her mother’s advice helped Parton stay true to her controversial style. “I’ve always been true to myself,” she continued. “That was what my mama always used to say: to thine own self be true. I put a lot of stock in that. Everything I do, whether it’s my personality, how I conduct myself and business, or whatever, if I do it my way, according to what I understand and believe, there’s a strength in that.” While the country singer admitted to caring what other people thought about her (including her disciplinarian patriarchs), “I never cared so much that it keeps me from being me.”
How Dolly Helped Shape The Music Industry One Sequin At A Time
While the “Jolene” singer certainly wasn’t the first country music star, Dolly Parton differed from her predecessors like Kitty Wells and Patsy Cline in the sense that she refused to abide by societal standards of what a “lady” should dress and look like. That rebellious spirit came out in her music, too, particularly in her 1968 sophomore album, ‘Just Because I’m a Woman.’
Parton’s ability to stand so firmly in her life choices while vehemently respecting others in theirs further cemented her place as one of the most beloved pop culture figures of all time. “I don’t want people to try to look like me, I just want ‘em to listen to me,” she once told Vogue. “I love everybody, and I go right through the bulls*** to the core of every person because we are all one. The biggest freaks in the world are my favorite people.”
The musical icon, actor, and amusement park owner has certainly come a long way from the raggedy jacket that inspired her hit track “Coat of Many Colors.” Even setting her personal accolades aside, Parton’s influence on the music industry is undeniable. Not only did her unapologetic persistence promote recognition and respect of women in a male-dominated world, but her willingness to hold firm to her beliefs empowered women to push back against the men who hadn’t caught up with the times—even if those men happened to be her rigidly strict relatives.
Photo by AFF-USA/Shutterstock
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