How Dolly Parton’s Costumes ‘Subtly’ Showcased the Singer’s ‘Soft Pastel’ Tattoos Along Her Arms, According to Designer

Costume designer Debra McGuire paid tribute to Dolly Parton following her death at age 80. McGuire shared how she made clothes to subtly display the country icon’s pastel tattoos.

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NEED TO KNOW

Dolly Parton died on Aug. 25 at the age of 80

Costume designer Debra McGuire shared a tribute in which she reflected on her time with the singer and how she made a dress to showcase her tattoos

Parton shared the meaning behind her subtle body ink before her death

Those who knew and worked with Dolly Parton over the span of her decades-long legacy are honoring the country star after her death on Aug. 25 following a “brief battle with cancer.” One of those people is costume designer Debra McGuire, who recently shared the intimate details of her brief collaboration with Parton in the 1990s.

In an Instagram post shared on Wednesday, Aug. 26, McGuire — who went on to work on Friends, New Girl and The Morning Show — recalled meeting the “Jolene” singer through TV and film producer Gail Berman, who worked with Parton on Heaven’s to Betsy.

“There she was, smaller than I had imagined, wearing a yellow gingham dress, legs elegantly crossed,” McGuire recalled. “But what struck me most wasn’t the dress or her famous blonde hair — it was her skin. Glowing, milky white, more porcelain than porcelain itself. I sat there, unable to speak, overwhelmed by her presence.”

Parton flew McGuire out to Nashville, where she experienced firsthand the Grammy winner’s “massive metal barn” filled with “everything that had ever been designed for her, dating back to when she was a teenager,” all of which was “carefully stored and preserved.”

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For around three years, McGuire designed outfits for some of Parton’s most memorable moments, including the 10-Year Anniversary of Dollywood and her 1999 induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

In her post, McGuire also revealed that she made a birthday dress for Parton in just three days.

“I chose a gorgeous French gold lace with loops in the design,” she wrote, adding the one thoughtful element she featured within the dress. “...Those openings along the upper arm where the soft pastel ink of her tattoos peeked through ever so subtly.”

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Parton openly talked about the tattoos she had done over the years. In 2020, she told PEOPLE that her ink was real. “I do have some tattoos, that’s true,” she said at the time. “But they’re tasteful. I’m not a tattoo girl.”

“My tattoos are pretty, they’re artful and they usually started out to cover some scar, not to make a big statement,” she said, explaining that butterflies, in addition to ribbons and bows, were motifs inked onto her body.

In an October 2021 interview with W magazine, she added, “Most of my tattoos came because I’m very fair and I have a tendency to scar when I get any kind of cut. I’ve had surgeries for different things, and if the scars didn’t heal properly, I just gotta put tattoos to take the sting out. I don’t have the real heavy, dark tattoos. Mine are all pastel. And I have more than one!”

For the past two decades, Parton worked exclusively with designer Steve Summers for all of her looks. In 2022, Summers told PEOPLE, “My friends tease me all the time that designing dresses for Dolly Parton is the gayest job on earth. I just quote her back to them: ‘Whatever you are, be that.’ ”

The designer added, “The myth is not a myth. She really is that genuine — that caring and loving and funny. I’d do anything for her, because she’d do anything for me.”

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