After a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its elaborate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed critics who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.
A King of Sequins
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his signature style, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are striving for a theatrical, more theatrical, breathtaking, memorable statement.”
A Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut 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 titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across arena stages in sparkles, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, illuminated against camp sets. A top stylist her creative director told a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers waved giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also reference classic performances, including burlesque and chorus line references. The final look are poles apart from the 90s Britney Spears era of short shirts and cargo pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
A Coveted Classic Style
For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a collection of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style evoke fond memories for a past glamour,” says a historian, a curator at the an academic institution, who studies the story of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the glitter but without the nudity.”
More Than Simply Style: An Icon of Vegas
She says this figure are central to the identity of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, appearing at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Las Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
The Appeal of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the allure. This idea Taylor Swift hints at in a latest docuseries that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, training and 149 performances across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own showgirl performances as “like running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my entrance so I could recover before I went on stage. One is working hard the whole time but creating this image that it’s simple and beautiful and ethereal.”
Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. Is there anyone better to look to than such icons, who have always represented make-believe, idealism and a realm where nobody makes a mistake.
