Following a 31-year stint on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The show, famous for its ornate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and critical critics who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
A Sultan of Sequins
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his trademark look, dressing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a publication. “New stars are striving for a theatrical, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
The Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they danced across arena stages in sparkles, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, highlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from Tradition
Modern stars and other chart toppers also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The results are worlds away from the 90s pop style of revealing tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
A Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a series of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls inspire a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the University of Nevada, who studies the story of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of the City
Chung says showgirls are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, showing up at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
An Allure of Transformation
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. It’s something Swift hints at in a recent behind-the-scenes film that captures the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, training and 149 shows across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own nights in the spotlight as “like running a marathon in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my moment so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. You are sweating the whole time but crafting this image that it’s easy and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. What better figure to look to than showgirls, who have always embodied fantasy, idealism and a world where no one makes a mistake.
