Decoding Dolly Parton’s Beloved (Bedazzled!) Style on Her Birthday

“I’m no natural beauty. If I’m gonna have any looks at all, I’m gonna have to create them,” the iconic Dolly Parton once claimed. But really, who needs “natural beauty”—whatever that is?—when you can flaunt the highest, blondest hair, the puffiest lips, the most luscious bosom, and not least, the most phenomenal talent?

Parton, who turns 72 today, got an early birthday present yesterday, becoming the recipient of two Guinness World Records, the first for the most decades with a Top 20 hit on the Country Songs chart and the second for the most hits on the Hot Country Songs chart by a female artist. In her six-decade career, she has also garnered nine Grammy Awards, two Academy Award nominations, 10 Country Music Association Awards, seven Academy of Country Music Awards, and three American Music Awards. She is one of only seven female artists to win the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year Award.

Her highly individual, idiosyncratic appearance—“Never leave a rhinestone unturned!” she instructs—is so beloved, so seductive that after a rousing Parton concert, even the darkest, most sullen Goth among us may find ourselves contemplating a fringy leather jacket, a tough dungaree mini, or even a pair of crystal-embellished mules.

And who can blame us? “I think there is a little magic in the fact that I’m so totally real, but look so artificial at the same time,” Parton says. Quintessentially American, her style can be felt reverberating around the globe: Alessandro Michele at Gucci wants you in a Dolly-esque studded red plaid Western shirt; Sarah Burton at McQueen sees you in a pale blue denim haute-cowgirl frock. And don’t worry if all those holiday treats—that acre of panettone, that ocean of eggnog—means you might have to go up a size or two! According to the great lady, “If I can get my dress on, my weight is under control.”

Here, our roster of Dolly-worthy fashions.