HEE HAW GETS THE HEAVE-HO AS COUNTRY ACTS LOSE THE GINGHAM FOR THE
GUCCI
Jeff Houck
* 01/30/99
The Palm Beach Post
(Copyright 1999)
* No doubt about it. This was a seminal moment in country music
history.
Two weeks ago at the American Music Awards, the Dixie Chicks had
just been named the favorite new country artist.
That they won was not a surprise. The talented - and beautiful -
trio of Natalie Maines and sisters Martie Seidel and Emily Erwin had
earned the honor by selling 3 million copies of their critically
acclaimed album Wide Open Spaces.
They hiked up the hems of their satin and beaded designer gowns to
climb the stage. Maines, the platinum-blond lead singer and the
first to arrive at the podium, took charge of the microphone. Most
artists who win awards thank their manager, record label or album
producer. Maines went another direction.
"We want to thank our makeup artists and hair stylists - because
that's what it's all about!"
"I was stunned when she said that," Renee Fowler says a few days
after the awards show. Fowler is the Chicks' stylist, the one who
helped mold them into one of Nashville's fashion trend setters.
"I asked them afterward about it and they just said it was a fly-
by-the-seat comment," she said. "But that's who they are, vivacious
and full of spontaneity."
The group's energy was something Fowler wanted to capture when she
was asked to revamp their image. In mid-1997, the group signed with
Sony's Monument records, and both artists and label wanted to ditch
the Dale Evans look the group had worn for close to a decade.
Greater competition among female singers and a more liberal
mentality in Nashville called instead for higher hemlines, designer
fashions, exposed belly buttons and racier lyrics.
Compared to today's styles, the corn-pone, countrified heydays of
Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn and Minnie Pearl seem like a century ago.
Today's female country stars - with their empowering lyrics (Patty
Loveless) and sexy stage acts (Shania Twain) - now appeal to a
younger, wider audience. Toward that goal, the Chicks decided they
needed a makeover.
"They had a lot of pizazz when I first met them - Natalie is
especially a little tiger," Fowler said. "You never know what's
going to come out of her."
So Fowler began selecting clothes that were colorful, vivacious
and "fashion forward." Their long, flowing, California beach girl
curls were cropped, bobbed, streaked and layered. Cowgirl skirts,
fringe vests and cowboy boots gave way to short skirts, slinky tops,
bell-bottoms and leather pants.
"Their hairstyles are very now and obviously very `Chicks' "
Fowler said. "They don't follow a trend. They do what they feel.
And each one has a different style."
Cutting-edge fashion designers were beckoned to dress them for
this year's major events. Anna Sui designed their American Music
Awards gowns. Todd Oldham's doing their outfits for the Grammys in
February. Stage costumes are done by Cynthia Rowley and Betsey
Johnson. Not every female country artist can afford designer clothes
and an entourage of stylists, but the Chicks' success bought them a
newer, younger look that the label was happy to pay for.
"Natalie, Martie and Emily love to push the envelope, and they get
away with it because they can carry it," Fowler said. "That's what's
been so great: They trust me to do it."
Why the change? Take a look at the country as a whole and see how
it has morphed.
The Deep South was much more isolated from the rest of the country
in 1968 than it is in 1998. Back then, there was a much greater
difference between Janis Joplin and Loretta Lynn than there is
between Alanis Morissette and Shania Twain. Styles worn by Nashville
stars tended to stay in Nashville. Today, with videos and full-time
country cable channels, women from Portland, Maine, to Portland,
Ore., can identify with music coming out of Tennessee.
Proof of how far country has drifted from its Western and Southern
styles is evident by those at the top of the charts.
Shania Twain, wearing cropped tops and Spandex bottoms, tours with
a band adorned in vinyl shirts and running pants.
LeAnn Rimes, the 16-year-old phenomenon who moans about not being
able to "go through one night without you," wears trendy slip dresses
while covering Prince's Purple Rain on her latest album.
Trisha Yearwood does Discover Card commercials in hip, baggy jeans
and platform shoes. Mindy McCready's trademark is a bellybutton
ring. Deana Carter performs barefoot, her blond hair long and
hippie-style, singing the girl-power anthem Did I Shave My Legs for
This? Husband and wife superstars Faith Hill and Tim McGraw arrive
at awards shows wearing matching Richard Tyler outfits.
Longtime Nashville veteran Reba McEntire went on the The Tonight
Show last summer to debut a new single and made headlines with a
cropped, layered 'do radically different from the the big, curly
version she sported for almost 15 years.
Even Dolly Parton, fashion joke for more than a decade, has shed
the billowy wigs, gingham tops, blue eye shadow and heaving cleavage
that made her famous in the '70s. (OK, the bosom is still there.
It's just flaunted a little less.) In the '90s, she's slimmed down,
cut back on the makeup and opted for designer suits and streamlined
wigs.
The only major female star to keep a semblance of the cowgirl look
is Terri Clark, who wears a cowboy hat onstage, in her videos and on
her album covers.
Singer Suzy Bogguss, who since 1989 has changed from cowgirl
attire and frizzy hair to pinstripe suits and a shorter, more
versatile cut with streaks, says no one who has revamped recently was
immune to tacky styles during the '80s.
"I would love to rat on all my buddies, all of us who used to have
poodle perms and extensions in the '80s," says Bogguss. "We were all
in the same boat. Wynon-na used to have every color hair extensions
and every color weave you can imagine."
To some, a change this radical is just that; an aggressive effort
to stay current and relevant. Others see it as an abandonment of
* country music's roots and soul.
"I don't think it's bad by any means," said Fletcher Foster,
Arista records' senior marketing vice president in Nashville. "I
* think it takes a diversity of styles to make up country music. Plus,
you have to look at who's going to buy your music, and how you have
to make your image and clothes to reflect that."
When Faith Hill broke on the scene five years ago with an
approachable, girl-next-door look, it was a sign that a new
generation of artists were ready to take over.
"These people are young, in their late 20s, early 30s, and they're
not going to wear gunny sacks," Foster said.
* As country music's fan base grew and money began pouring into
Nashville, labels became more involved in grooming artists for their
videos, TV appearances and concerts.
"We never totally let it be up to the artists," he said. "It's
always a conversation with them, a very diplomatic conversation. But
we let them know that if they're going to be contemporary, they're
going to be styled a little more."
Image has become so vital to a career that an artist will first
call a stylist before scheduling a television appearance or video
shoot, said Mary Beth Felts, makeup artist for singer Trisha
Yearwood. Felts has so many big clients, she's launched her own line
of cosmetics named after female country stars. (" `Trisha' is a
shimmery mauve," Felts said. " `Martina,' for Martina McBride, is
more of a gold shimmer.")
For an artist, crafting an image is about self-discovery, she
said.
"What we do is help them so that the makeup and the clothes don't
wear them, they wear the makeup and clothes," Felts said. "We match
where they are, and show them what they can be when they put a look
on. Trisha can be a glamorous, beautiful woman, but it's a soft,
very approachable look - which is what she is."
Evelyn Shriver, president of Asylum Records, questions where all
this is heading and how it affects the music. The former manager for
Tammy Wynette, she's seen the spectrum of Nashville fashion evolve
over three decades.
"The girl thing now is very interesting to me," Shriver said.
"The minute money came into country again, everyone's favorite
designer became Richard Tyler. It used to be that most of them were
lucky to own a dress from Kmart."
Shriver says she prefers not to mold an artist's image, opting
instead to sign acts that have strong viewpoints and personalities.
"Quite often that includes a fashion viewpoint," she said. "I
don't care if that means old ripped jeans, if it's honest and
genuine. I hunger for those old days."
The fashion bug is beginning to affect male artists, too, singer
David Kersh says.
"In Nashville right now, if I (were) to go get a record deal and I
went in wearing a cowboy hat, boots and starched Wranglers, they
wouldn't even take a look at me," Kersh said.
"They're so sick and tired of `hat acts' right now, it's not even
funny."
Still, die-hard country fans seem to gravitate toward the cowboy
look when it comes to male artists. George Strait, Garth Brooks and
Alan Jackson, who wear variations of traditional garb, have never
been more popular.
"The label wants a more mainstream look, but it's the cowboy hat
acts who have been more successful and had the largest musical impact
over time," Kersh said. "It just blows my mind."
