Meet Steve Summers, From Dancer To Dolly Parton’s Creative Director

Dolly Parton and Steve Summers at Late Night with Seth Myers (November 2019)

"It takes a lot of time and money to look this cheap, honey," quipped Dolly Parton in her 1995 memoir, Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business.

It takes time, money and it also takes two. For over 30 years, Steve Summers has worked with the country icon to shape her fashion choices, her stage design, album covers and even her media presence. He's essentially her branding expert, the link between Dolly and how the public relate to her. 

“She’s very much what you think she is. She’s very giving and generous, she’s very disciplined. We are never late for anything, and I’ve learnt to always be prepared for anything. She would have been a great teacher,” says Summers.

“One of the beautiful things about getting to design for Dolly is that there are so many versions of Dolly: the singer, the actress, the producer, the philanthropist, the book lady. Every single one of them is so specific,” says Summers. “She was very clear that she wasn’t as worried about what she wore as much as making sure she was always appropriate. So, I’m constantly trying to make sure we’re prepared and we’re appropriate.”

It's not the vision Summers had for his life and career with Dolly when he first showed up to an audition for singers and dancers in 1991. He was chosen to perform in one of the shows at the Dollywood theme park, a role he continued for five years before stretching his creative talents into designing sets and wardrobe. His ability on stage and off was noticed by the singer, and appreciated. To this day, Parton entrusts Summers with running much of the Dollywood experience, not to mention designing some of her most breathtaking costumes.

“We did a costume that my staff calls The Armadillo,” recalls Summers. “It’s a silver-beaded pantsuit with leather and these thigh-high, gunmetal boots. I remember I was walking down the street in New York City and I went into this store that had these leggings that were covered in silver-beaded fabric. They had two pairs left, so I bought them both. We turned those leggings into this outfit that ended up on the cover of a magazine. We did these silver leather shoulder-pads and thigh-high silver boots, it’s a really great outfit. It was so clever that we were able to pull it off at all.”

Summers is no Svengali. Dolly, he explains, has been managing her own career for over 60 years. His role isn't to reinvent the wheel, but to keep it spinning. Both Summers and Parton are committed to each other. In his mid-20s, Summers quit his job as the general manager of a store and moved his wife and daughter into his mother's house. At a loss for his next move, he took his mother's advice and approached the local college to apply for a scholarship based on his singing ability. His successful audition paved the way to his audition at Dollywood, and once recruited by Parton herself, she paid for Summers to study at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

The investment was an astute one by Dolly, since Summers has gone on to design some of her most wonderful costumes and to have proven himself irreplaceable – his knowledge of Dolly and her various business and philanthropy interests is thorough, the result of decades of trust and education by Dolly herself. Summers admits that failure was an inevitable part of his development.

“She has trained me well,” says Summers. “I learned the hard way a lot of times, by failing. I remember I did this one dress that I thought was the greatest thing on the planet. It was chartreuse green leather and green-sea beads; the coolest thing, I thought. I loved this outfit, but the leather was way too thick and it did not work well, and never fit right. Dolly finally pulled me aside and said, ‘Steve, you’re not gonna win ‘em all. But the thing is, we have to keep trying’. One thing I love about her is she always says, ‘we’. She’s always  made me feel like I’m part of the Dolly Parton team.”

Steve Summers and Dolly Parton at the 2019 Country Music Association Awards

Summers admits it can be a daunting job. “Sometimes we’re making so many outfits, so fast. It’s very nice to know that she’s always supporting me.”

Summers works from an office on Dolly’s property, which hasn’t changed during COVID-19, although they get tested regularly prior to workdays starting. In fact, Dolly has invested heavily in the development of the Moderna vaccine with a $1 million donation. She will be getting vaccinated the morning after our interview. For Dolly and her staff, it will not change much. The work simply must go on. One of those major tasks will be continuing to archive Dolly’s extensive costume collection.

“They’re stored on her property,” says Summers. “We have a 50,000 square foot warehouse that has every item she’s worn, other than things we’ve auctioned off, since 1964. Everything from every movie, every video shoot, every TV show, every personal appearance, every time she’s gone to Dollywood: we have them all. There’s a lady who works with us, Rebecca Seaver, in charge of all the archiving and historical aspects of the clothing. So, she’s in there taking pictures of every outfit, talking about the fabric content, who designed it, where it was worn and when, and those things are all saved. Eventually, they will rotate in and out of various museums across the world.”

How can we talk Dolly and not talk songs? Summers has a sentimental favourite. It was the song that was playing every day at the specific time when Summers could call his now-husband in order to align their different time zones: Summers in Europe on tour and his husband in America.

“The title of the song, ’I know I’m only dreaming’, is tattooed on my arm. My husband has the same tattoo on his arm.”

Is he a Dolly fan?

“He sure is now.”

Follow Steve Summers on Instagram here.