Dolly Parton made looking 'cheap' iconic by owning 350 over-the-top wigs and buying 300 bedazzled outfits a year inspired by the 'town tramp' - as the country legend dies aged 80 after cancer battle

Many words can be used to describe country legend Dolly Parton, but plain is not one of them.

From album covers to the red carpet, the singer was known for her over-the-top, glamorous country girl style defined by rhinestones, fringe, sky-high blonde wigs and skin-tight sequined stage outfits.

On Tuesday, it was announced that Dolly had died at the age of 80, with her death confirmed in an Instagram video posted by her nephew Brian Seaver. 

Throughout her successful career spanning nearly sixty years, the star was, without question, an incredible recording artist, songwriter, philanthropist and raconteur.

But there is no denying she was also a fashion icon.  

'It's certainly a choice; I don't like to be like everybody else,' the country star once said while defending her famously flamboyant sense of style. 'I would never stoop so low to be fashionable, that's the easiest thing in the world to do.' 

Dolly reportedly had more than 350 wigs, more than 2,000 pairs of shoes and a 50,000-square-foot archive of bedazzled stage outfits.

In fact, she had so many outfits she wrote an entire book about them called Behind The Seams: My Life In Rhinestones.

The star also sang about her style in her songs, from her 1967 hit Dumb Blonde to 2008's Backwoods Barbie.

Not only did she inspire her fans, but also country artists including Miley Cyrus, Kacey Musgraves and Carrie Underwood - all of whom had their own rhinestone cowgirl phases. 

Lest we forget, she also collaborated with Emma Grede and Khloé Kardashian of Good American on a Joleans denim and apparel collection.

As the lyrics went on her debut album, 'This dumb blonde ain't nobody's fool'.

Dolly's blueprint for over-the-top Western style began shortly after she moved to Nashville to jumpstart her music career in 1964, aged 18.

However, her father and grandfather were not fans of her style, and during the early days she was punished for it.

In her 2023 book, Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones, she wrote that her appearance was a big issue at the start of her career.

When she landed her first record deal, Fred Foster, the boss of Monument Records, was desperate 'to change my style into a 1960s pop look'.

She wrote: 'They wanted to flatten my hair. They wanted me to look more chic and wear more streamlined clothes. I hated everything about it, I felt naked.

'I kept saying, 'I can't do what I'm supposed to do as a performer if I don't feel comfortable within my own skin,

He wasn't the only one telling her, at the time, 'you look more like a hooker than you do a singer.' 

But she simply snapped back: 'I've got great ideas and I'm a creative person. I think I've got something more to sell than just the way I look.'

By 1974, Dolly was out on her own, and her signature public image - the blonde wigs, cleavage-baring ensembles was cast in stone.

Soon Hollywood beckoned, and the singer took it by storm, winning a Grammy for her single Here You Come Again and appearing in a string of hit movies that eventually earned her a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1984.

Over the years, Dolly experimented with dramatic wigs, towering heels, and seemingly infinite rhinestones.

She always favoured electric colours, skin-tight costumes, and was rarely seen without long acrylic nails and a full face of makeup.

Her bejewelled ensembles and beaming smile quite literally lit up every room she walked into. 

'Never leave a rhinestone unturned,' she told Andy Warhol in a conversation for Interview, which the magazine republished in 2014.

She paired her electric style with a keen sense of self-awareness that only made her fanbase love her more. 

Dolly frequently used self-deprecating humour about her iconic look to disarm critics and maintain complete control over her public image.

'It costs a lot of money to look this cheap,' she said while starring in the 1982 movie, 'The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas'. 

The famous phrase became a Dolly motto, and she told Vanity Fair in 2008 that that phrase would probably make it onto her epitaph.

Her humour about her signature bottle-blonde bombshell look came from growing up in rural Sevier County, Tennessee.

It was what she called a 'country girl's idea of glamour,' she explained in a 2006 interview.

'Well, cheap lookin', flashy lookin,'' Dolly said about her style, before diving into a story about her hometown of Locust Ridge.

'I kind of patterned myself after what they called the town tramp in my hometown, when I was little,' she said during an appearance on CBS.

'There was this woman that was very much a loose woman, but I didn't know what that meant and I just told her how beautiful she was, 'cause she had this beautiful yellow hair.

'She left a big impression on me, and I would talk about how beautiful she was and different ones would say, 'Oh, she's just trash.' And I thought, 'That's what I want to be when I grow up. I'm gonna be trash!'

'And that is how I look.'

Designer Steve Summers, with whom the singer collaborated for over 30 years, said it was clear who was in charge.

'Dolly created the image,' he said. 'She laid out all the ground rules. I just followed them.'

He revealed that the singer would change into ten outfits a day when she was doing personal appearances.

Steve told Vogue: 'There is an outfit in production every single day. If she's doing personal appearances, 10 outfits in a day is not unusual.'

The designer added about how everything she is seen in is customised: 'Even if she wears a dress that's off the rack, it doesn't look like it by the time she gets it on.

'There's a customisation that happens no matter what she's wearing.'

He also revealed he and Dolly's costume team would make around 300 custom outfits a year for the star.

And if you ever wondered where all the elaborate costumes end up, Summers said the team has kept all of her looks archived in a warehouse. 

Her famous locks, as she said on David Letterman's show, were so fake it was 'a fire hazard', but it was also practical.

'People would ask me how long it took to do my hair, and I'd tell them: 'I don't know, I'm never there,' she said.

Dolly later opened up about her famous mane during a 2016 appearance on Hallmark Channel's Home & Family.

The star confessed that her signature hairdo was actually a 'very teased wig'.

'I used to try to keep my own hair teased as big as I like it, and having the bleach and all of that, it just broke off,' she said.

'I thought, 'Why am I going through all that? Why don't I just wear wigs? That way, I never have a bad hair day! I have a big hair day, but not a bad hair day.'

As she mentioned in her 2021 memoir Dolly Parton, Songteller, she wore wigs 'because I wanted to look like the dream I carried in my head'. 

She also wanted to emulate the look of gospel singers and country singers from that era.

'Well, the higher the hair, as they say…' she joked during the 'Home & Family' show. 'But actually, I like the curls. I like the different ones. Gospel singers and country singers just have to have that big hair. It's just a thing.'

In a Good Housekeeping cover story in 2020, the country music icon confirmed that she still wore wigs daily.

However, she would tend to her natural hair when she wasn't on the road: 'I let it get long enough to braid sometimes - just for fun. But never for stage. My wigs are my armor.'

Some of Dolly's belongings, including her iconic wigs, are on display in 'Dolly Suite 1986' at Dollywood's DreamMore Resort & Spa, in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

The star's death was first confirmed Tuesday in an Instagram video posted by her nephew Brian, who also acted as her head of security.

She died Tuesday morning after being hospitalised Friday at Nashville's Vanderbilt University Medical Center with autoimmune and kidney problems, according to TMZ.

Her private cancer battle was then revealed following the heartbreaking news of her death.

The country music legend's death shocked the world and came after months of health woes that saw her pull out of a string of public appearances, fuelling fan fears for her wellbeing.

Those close to the singer said she had both become increasingly reclusive and secretive about her own ill health in recent months.

And now, Dolly's representatives revealed she died following a 'brief battle with cancer' in a statement to People, though they did not disclose what type of cancer it was.

'Our beloved Dolly Parton spent her life and career bringing joy, laughter, hope and integrity into everything she touched,' the statement read.

'After bravely facing a brief battle with cancer, Dolly departed her Earthly life today at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center surrounded by loved ones.'

Her representatives also highlighted the extraordinary reach of Parton's 'unmatched generosity', noting she touched the lives of countless people she would never meet and was always ready to 'offer a helping hand'.

'Whether it be the hundreds of millions of books donated through her invaluable Imagination Library or funding research that helped create a lifesaving vaccine used around the world, Dolly's unconditional love for all people was the guiding force for her lasting impact.'