Following a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its ornate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and critical critics who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
The Sultan of Glitz
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his signature style, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he told a newspaper. “New stars are pushing toward a glamorous, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, memorable statement.”
The Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. Recently, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across concert platforms in glitter, strategic openings and plumes, highlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, her performers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
These artists and other chart toppers also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The outcome are poles apart from the 90s teen pop of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
A Coveted Classic Style
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a see-through beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, Miley Cyrus paid an private amount to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the history of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas
Chung says this figure are integral to the iconography of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still used as an logo of the city, being present at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
The Allure of Illusion
Hardy says the complete change of a stage character is part of the attraction. This is a notion Taylor Swift alludes to in a latest behind-the-scenes film that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, training and 149 shows across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own showgirl performances as “like extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could rest before I made my entrance. You are sweating the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s easy and gorgeous and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. Who better to look to than such icons, who have always represented make-believe, flawlessness and a realm where nobody misses a mark.
