Hi, Vogue.
It's Dolly and today I'm excited to be sharing
my life in looks.
[upbeat instrumental music]
I have never thought of myself as being fashionable.
I'll just tell you what I know about how I look
and why I look that way. [laughs]
This is the Jolene album cover from 1974.
Well, actually this was a great time in my life
because I was just about to have one of the biggest hits
I've ever had.
That was the song Jolene.
Of course, I did a whole album called Jolene.
The designer for the outfit was Lucy Adams,
a lady that sewed my clothes in Nashville.
She and Ruth Kemp were the ones that kind of kept me going
in those very early days.
We did different poses on stools, and laying in the floor,
and sitting and squatting, and all that.
So this particular little jumpsuit,
because it was so moveable, was actually really good.
And I always loved puffy sleeves.
I kind of felt comfortable in this whole little outfit.
Well this one, of course,
was my first big crossover record.
This is the cover from the Here You Come Again album.
I mighta put this together myself.
It's just a shirt with a knot tied in my belly
and a pair of blue jeans.
But that big old puffy hair,
I would imagine somebody probably said,
Why don't you do kind of like a little Marilyn look?
Marilyn Manson more like it.
But anyhow, I was so hoping that this particular record
Here You Come Again was gonna be a hit
because all of my fans in country,
a lot of the people in the business were saying,
Dolly, you're making a big mistake.
You don't need to leave country music.
And I said, I'm not leaving country.
I'll take country with me wherever I go,
because I am country.
But I was so happy when Here You Come Again
became my first million selling record.
So every picture and everything to do with that
is real special to me.
Oh yay, yay.
This was 1980.
This was the premiere of 9 to 5.
I was with Jane and Lily.
And of course that was such an exciting time in my life.
That was the first movie that I had ever been part of.
I'd never even seen a movie made until that time,
and even memorized the whole script,
thinking that they just did it like a play
where you had to know your lines.
That's just 'cause I'm a dumb country hick, but that's okay.
I got to dress up like I was a city girl in this.
And I'd never really thought about being fashionable.
I just always wore things that fit me,
but I knew that for something as big as a premiere,
I thought that I needed to be fancy
and I didn't know how to do that.
So Ann Roth, who designed all the clothes for 9 to 5,
I asked her to do a dress for me, and she did.
I thought it was a beautiful dress.
I remember feeling really pretty
and I felt like that I was well-dressed
and not half-assed like sometimes you are.
And I just remember that was probably the first time
I probably had ever really felt like that I was fashionable.
Well, this was the Rhinestone premiere
and we were certainly dressed up nice.
I'm sure that dress was also designed by the person
that designed all the clothes for the movie.
I remember thinking I have to look good
'cause Stallone was hotter than Dooley at that time.
And I knew he'd be dressed to the nines
'cause he really goes all out with everything he does
so I tried to look my Dolly best.
But although this movie was not a big hit,
it was a big hit with me because I had the best time.
Months before that I'd had some health problems
and I'd been out of work for a while.
This was my first time back to do any major things.
And so Stallone, he is such a crazy person.
He is so funny and so out there
that he really lifted my spirits
and I wrote some of the best songs that I've ever written
for that movie.
So it just depends on how you look at success.
This is a picture from 1987.
I had a variety show that was on for awhile
and Oprah Winfrey had come to do the show.
I been on her show often and I'd asked her
if she'd come be on my show and she said,
Well, you know, I can't sing.
I said, Oh, everybody can sing a little.
So anyway, she was a good sport and she came on.
We had a choir and everything behind us
and we sang a little bit,
and I remember us loving our outfits.
This was designed by Tony Chase.
He did all the costumes for my entire variety show.
So this was one of my favorite little dresses.
He was big and tall.
He was always trying to put me in all these clothes
that had these big old shoulders
and all that stuff that was so fashionable.
I said, Tony, just kinda tone it down a little.
There ain't nothing big about me
but my mouth and my boobs.
How do you think I looked? [laughs]
That's what I thought.
This picture was from 1988.
This is from a Christmas at Home special I did.
Oh, this is great.
Well, of course you can't go wrong with a choir.
When I wear why I always feel like I'm singing to God.
But I also always loved Christmas
so I always dress in the season.
I have all my sweaters with the bells and the holly
and the Christmas trees.
So every day from like Christmas Eve till New Year's,
I'll wear my Christmas clothes.
And by the way, I have a new Christmas album
called A Holly Dolly Christmas, what else,
coming out this very season.
So I'm gonna be doing a lot of shows
and I'll be wearing a lot of white, red, and greens.
And I've got clothes already prepared for that.
Well hey, this one's from 1989.
This was also designed by Tony Chase.
All the clothes I wore that night were designed
by Tony Chase, except for the little skits I did
that I kinda had to wear little clothes that they had,
but I was hosting the show
and I was also the musical guest.
And my look is not easy.
I don't just go put on a shirt to do something.
I have to totally tear it all up down, take the hair off,
take the clothes off, get it all on.
And I mean, I was a nervous wreck
and I was worn to a frazzle before that show was over.
But I had some of the greatest costumes on that.
This is me in 2005 with Elton John on the CMA show.
I had recorded an album and I did the song Imagine,
The Beatles song,
and he was nice enough to come sing on that song with me.
And of course, I was trying to dress look like Elton John.
And he's trying to look like somebody else, I guess,
at that time.
He was dressing down and I was dressing up.
I look kinda like Little Lord, what is that, Fauntleroy.
[laughs] Little Lord Fauntleroy,
kind of freely and all that.
Well 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.
Well, this is me at the Kennedy Center
for the Kennedy Center Honors in 2006.
And I was very proud to be part of that
'cause that is a very prestigious thing.
I remember all these stars there
and all these wonderful artists that were singing my songs
and they were making a big deal over me.
And I was very honored, very flattered, of course,
but I remember loving this dress that Robert did.
My hair looked especially good,
and that was Cheryl Riddle that did that hair.
But this one was a very special night for me
and I wanted to look special and feel special.
And I did.
Well, this is 2014 and I was at Glastonbury Festival.
I was a little scared to go to the festival
because I thought they're not gonna know who I am.
They're not going to like my music.
And it turned out to be one of the greatest things
I've ever done.
And it'll probably go down in history
as was one of my biggest successes really.
And this outfit was a big success with me too.
Steve Summers designed this wonderful outfit
'cause I love to work in pants,
but these pants kinda have a gauzy, see-through net legs.
And I sit on the stool a lot, I'm up and down
so it's hard for me to work in a glamorous dress.
So Steve designed this outfit
that had all the glamour of a dress,
but all the good ways that I could move about
and make it still look glamorous and durable.
So this was a wonderful outfit and this was a wonderful day.
All those people out there.
I mean, I don't know how many,
a couple of hundred thousand people,
biggest crowd I've ever worked to.
And they seem to like me.
This is 2019 at the Grammys.
I had been honored for Music Cares the night before
and Miley Cyrus, who is my goddaughter and I love,
I've known her since she was a tiny little baby,
she was singing with me that night on one of my songs.
We felt very pretty.
She was dressed in, I don't know who designed hers,
but mine was Steve Summers.
Billy Ray and I, her dad, were friends early on,
but Miley also loves my songs and she's recorded Jolene.
And that's one of her songs that she has an all her shows.
So because of her, when she was young on Hannah Montana,
I've kind of gathered all of this whole new generation
of young fans.
I really credit Miley a lot for some of my younger fans
and a lot of the new generation of girls that know her
that knows she knows me.
It is kind of like a wonderful little connection I have
with Miley and Billy Ray.
They're like family to me.
Well, okay.
Thank you Vogue for having me on,
and for allowing me to kinda lead you back
through all the things in my life.
Not all but some of the highlights of them.
I've had a wonderful life.
And I thank all of you out there for making that happen.
And I thank Vogue for letting me kinda share that
with you again.
So Merry Christmas, everybody.
Go buy my album.
I need the money
'cause I need to buy some fashionable clothes.
[upbeat instrumental music]
