Unlikely Angel
Today a shoot I did for the groovy online magazine, Rue hits the virtual stands. We shot an ideal I had been brewing for some time, a fashion story, kind of a love letter if you will, inspired by Dolly Parton's early days when style was big and hair was even bigger! Dress by Oscar de la Renta at Jeffery, Shoes Prada, Steel Guitar by Republic, Dallas Texas
The higher the hair the closer to God! Dolly has written over 3000 songs in her career and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame n 2001.
Styled by the wonderful Emily Sistruck, retro perfect make up by Faith Brooks and the amazing hair and wigs by David Hamblem. Above our Dolly, model Grace Boven from Factor Women, wears a beautiful dress by Kate Spade available at Neiman Marcus.
Dolly was actually a child performer and made her Grand Ole Opry debut in her early teens. She became a regular on the Porter Wagoner show in the 60's where her star really began to rise. It was her departure from the show that inspired her most popular song, "I Will Always Love You".
We also had the use of this amazing Plymouth Valiant from the fabulous Jordan Sandlin of Fattycakes. She lives in the ultra cool Atlanta neighborhood known as Northcrest Modern and helped me pull the locations together for the shoot. Top by Trina Turk.
If you need to jump start your Dolly collection I highly recommend these two albums The Essential Dolly Volumes One & Two. Also well worth a listen if you love gospel, Letter to Heaven.
Fun Dolly Facts:
She is one of 12 children and is just 4'11".
She met her one and only husband, Carl Dean at the "Wishy-Washy" Laundromat, they have been married since 1966.
Elvis wanted to record "I Will Always Love You" but his manager would required 50% rights to the song so Dolly said no.
Oh and it made the cover! Love this shot photographed in the beautiful Jonathan Adler store in Atlanta. To view the entire issue just click the photo above if you are on an iPad or use the handy widget below.
all photos & content © Lara Rossignol
Tuesday, December 6, 2011 at 9:00AM
Reader Comments (14)
Simply a gorgeous tribute to a major icon! The hair and styling are beyond and Grace is a perfect Dolly! I also love Rue, what a perfect match up.
Wow, I saw this issue earlier, it is one of my favorite online mags but your background info makes it even more interesting! I love Dolly Parton and you captured her essence perfectly, stunning stunning photos!
what a gorgeous shoot! the styling is so perfect. i love dolly.
your blog always inspires me to be a better photograher. I just love it.
Just beautiful! I have long loved Dolly and her story is so interesting, what a lovely tribute and how fun it Rue? Never heard of it before but so glad to have discovered it.
The styling is fabulous! What fun to read the factoids on Dolly :-)
beautiful images! the styling is amazing! I have to add to the Dolly factoids ... she's given to her community in so many ways ... her most generous being a literacy program she started in my home area (also her home area). she started a program that provides a book every month to every child from birth to the age of five ... regardless of family income. our local hospitals sign up new moms and the new books just show up in the mail. my son loved seeing a new book in the mail and thought of Dolly as a little like Santa :) Now he loves Dolly for giving us Dollywood :)
thanks for sharing such a great post!
LOVE!
Congratulations on getting the cover and the fantastic photography! I love Dolly too, she's always seemed such a sweetheart with a nice peppering of sass! When I was in my 20's she had her variety show, and I remember wishing I had her shoes. I figured since she was tiny like me we'd wear the same size and I would've been happy to take her hand-me-downs! The things we dream of...
XXX
Suzanne
What a gorgeous shoot! Love the car, the hair, everything! And Dolly is my homegirl:)
What lovely looks! The shot in the car is my favorite. So retro and beautiful.
She looks great and so do you...thanks for sharing!
Great images in the mag....but even better to see the side by side with Dolly. Thanks for sharing.
I love her so much. Such an idol. Found a link to this on a great fashion blog!