After a three-decade stint on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The show, known for its ornate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and critical critics who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
A Sultan of Sequins
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his signature style, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over 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.
“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 glamorous, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, memorable statement.”
The Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by music artists including Dua Lipa as they danced across world tours in sparkles, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, illuminated against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, her performers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Pulling from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also draw on classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and ensemble references. The outcome are poles apart from the 90s pop style of short shirts and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn earlier in the year 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 hit among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire fond memories for a past glamour,” says a historian, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the story of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
Chung says showgirls are key to the identity of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, appearing at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
The Allure of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the attraction. It’s something Swift references in a recent behind-the-scenes film that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, training and numerous shows across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own stage routines as “like running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could recover before I went on stage. You are perspiring the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s effortless and stunning and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to look to than these performers, who have always personified dreams, idealism and a realm where no one falters.
