Following a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its intricate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed critics who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
The King of Sparkle
Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his signature style, clothing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a newspaper. “New stars are striving for a glamorous, more spectacular, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
A Musical Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across concert platforms in sequins, revealing designs and feathers, illuminated against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, her performers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from the Past
These artists and other chart toppers also take inspiration from 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The final look are vastly different from the 1990s era pop style of revealing tops and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Classic Look
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through embellished dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls inspire fond memories for a past glamour,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the history of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
Chung says the showgirl image are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still featured as an logo of the city, being present at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
The Appeal of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This is a notion Taylor Swift references in a new documentary series that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, workouts and numerous shows across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She describes her own showgirl performances as “similar to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my cue so I could recover before I made my entrance. You’re sweating the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s effortless and stunning and magical.”
Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Who better to turn to than such icons, who have always embodied dreams, flawlessness and a world where no one misses a mark.
