Dottie West - Fashion Style: From Gingham To Bob Mackie

Fashion Style: From Gingham To Bob Mackie

When West entered the Nashville music scene in the 1960s, she and many of her female colleagues (Skeeter Davis, Jean Shepherd, June Carter and Loretta Lynn among them) portrayed a “sweetheart” image then popular using gingham, calico and ruffles. However, as the Nashville sound progressed, West, like her friend Patsy Cline, began wearing more contemporary outfits on occasion, yet still remaining true to the “sweetheart” image as well. Other women in country music soon followed this trend. To reflect her music and the changes in her personal life in the 1970s and early 1980s, West drastically reinvented herself with plastic surgery and a new wardrobe becoming “Lady Airbrush” and “Little Miss Fireball” virtually overnight, especially during her duet partnership with Kenny Rogers starting in 1978. West broke style boundaries in the country music scene when she partnered with Hollywood “Stylist to the Stars” Bob Mackie, who also designed for Cher, Carol Burnett, Diana Ross and Ann-Margret. With Mackie's custom designs of sequined capes, spandex pants and high heel boots, West became the only female country vocalist to wear his designs, which cost her thousands. “I feel sexy in Bob Mackie clothes” West once said in a television interview, later aired on TNN. “Shopping is such great therapy for me.” West paid homage to friend Patsy Cline on the cover of her 1980 Wild West album, wearing her own updated sexy version of Cline's classic cowgirl style. She thanked Mackie on the album's credits "To the man whose clothes make women look good, Bob Mackie." This new style shocked many in the then conservative country music industry, however her style blended naturally into other music industry fashions who were already wearing similar outfits. In April 2010, West's granddaughter, Tess Frizzell (daughter of Shelly West) began auctioning off many of West's stage outfits online via eBay.

In November 2003, CMT television voted West on their special countdown of the 40 Greatest Fashion Statements in Country Music at No. 32 for her tight spandex outfits from the 1980s. They called her outfit, not without derisiveness, "the weapon of mass reduction."