Lainey Wilson on Staying Loyal to Bell-Bottoms: 'You Ain't Going to See Me in Skinny Jeans' (Exclusive)

Lainey Wilson slipped into her first pair of bell-bottoms when she was just a “little girl.” Then, when she moved to Nashville in 2011, the super-flared pants found their way into her closet again (ironically during the year of jeggings) — and this time for good.

The rest, she says, is history. 

“A few years in [to her music career], I realized pretty quickly that as a decent female singer-songwriter, that's not enough. I needed to do something that made me stand out and stand apart,” she tells PEOPLE while talking about her jewelry collaboration with Kendra Scott.

That's when she vowed to wear bell-bottoms “every single day," which she plans to keep on doing for life, even in her old age (“I'll probably be 90 years old and still wearing bell-bottoms — I don't think anybody's ever seen my ankles!” she joked in her summer 2023 PEOPLE StyleWatch cover story).

Over the years, we’ve seen the country star and Yellowstone actress, find new ways to style her bell-bottoms.

Blinged-out, splashed in patterns, made from leather, incorporated into a tailored suit — you name it — she's experimented with almost every style under the sun. She even wore a rhinestone pair when she cosplayed as Hannah Montana (a gig she used to do before her big break) when honoring Miley Cyrus’ Disney Legend honor on Aug. 11. 

“What can I do that still is true to me, that makes me feel like I can really do anything and walk somewhere with confidence?" is what pops into her mind when she throws on her favorite pants — even when she knows she might get some unsolicited opinions. 

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

"There were times where people looked at me crazy, thinking, ‘What in the world are you doing? Looks like you stepped out of the '70s.’ But I just kept doing it because I believed in it. I believed that eventually if you throw something against the wall long enough that it will stick.” 

"At the end of the day, I'm not going to say that I'm not going to wear anything, because who knows?" Wilson says when asked if there's a look out there that she'd never try. "A lot of people have never seen me in a dress," she adds.

There is one exception, however. “You ain't going to see me in skinny jeans,” says Wilson, who actually used to wear fitted pants "a lot" until she turned them into flares in true Lainey fashion.

The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!