Following a 31-year run on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, famous for its elaborate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and critical reviewers who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
The Master of Sequins
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his signature style, dressing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its projected value, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a media outlet. “Today's artists are pushing toward a theatrical, more dramatic, breathtaking, grand statement.”
The Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by singers including Miley Cyrus as they danced across arena stages in glitter, cut-outs and feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. Her fashion curator her creative director explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant feathered fans.
Pulling from Tradition
These artists and other successful musicians also reference 19th-century performances, including classic theater and dance line references. The results are vastly different from the 90s Britney Spears era of short shirts and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But certain observers are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Retro Style
For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the story of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
A Than Simply Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
She says showgirls are central to the imagery of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, being present at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the attraction. This idea Swift hints at in a recent docuseries that documents the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, workouts and countless shows across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own nights in the spotlight as “like extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. You are working hard the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s simple and stunning and ethereal.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. What better figure to look to than these performers, who have always embodied fantasy, perfection and a realm where nobody makes a mistake.
