As an upcoming star, Dolly Parton was reluctant to let anyone tell her what she could and couldn’t do, including what clothes were appropriate for her to wear. In a recent interview, Parton shared that her grandfather and father detested her fashion choices, admitting that her grandfather, who was a preacher, even physically disciplined her based on her clothing choices.
In a new interview with People Magazine, Parton shared that a racy catalog and some town locals sparked her interest in provocative fashion. She said, “I was kind of influenced by those early days, with women that I would see, like the loose women in our town, or just people that I’d see in magazines and the Frederick’s of Hollywood catalog. I mean, that spoke to me.” The looks, she said, “seemed to be my style and seemed to fit my personality, so I just went for it.”
Parton has always been vocal about her signature style: big hair, plunging tops, and colorful makeup inspired by the local “town tramp.” She said, “She was flamboyant. She had bright red lipstick and long red fingernails. She had high-heeled shoes, little floating plastic goldfish in the heels of them, short skirts, low-cut tops, and I just thought she was beautiful. When people would say, ‘She ain’t nothing but trash,’ I would always say, ‘Well, that’s what I’m gonna be when I grow up.'”
Parton told The Guardian of her grandfather’s discipline, “I was willing to pay for it. I’m very sensitive. 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.” Her family wasn’t the only ones giving Parton pushback on her clothing choices.
The singer battled record label executives as well. She shared with The Guardian, “I’ve always been true to myself. 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. You can think, ‘I can stand by this, I can live by this.'”
The “9 to 5” singer’s fashion is being chronicled in her new book, “Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones.” The book contains 450 full-color photographs of Parton’s looks, including images from her private costume archive. Parton states that the archive is housed in “big warehouses” on her property. Parton told People Magazine, “I have storage bins that people think are stables. When they come by my house, they see all these huge buildings, and they think, ‘Oh, I didn’t know you were into horses,’ and I say, ‘No, I’ve just been horsing around all these years, and those are my clothes.'”
With all that input, Parton says people’s opinions of her did matter, but she “never cared so much” to let it keep her from being her authentic self.