After a 31-year tenure on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its ornate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and disappointed critics who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
A King of Glitz
Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his signature style, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its initial estimate, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Today's artists are embracing a theatrical, more spectacular, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
A Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist 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 new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across concert platforms in sequins, revealing designs and feathers, spotlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director told a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, her performers waved giant feathered fans.
Pulling from Tradition
These artists and other chart toppers also draw on classic entertainment forms, including burlesque and ensemble references. The results are vastly different from the 90s 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. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Vintage Style
For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“This style inspire nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, a curator at the University of Nevada, who documents the history of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Vegas
The expert says the showgirl image are central to the iconography of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, being present at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
The Allure of Escape
Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This idea Taylor Swift alludes to in a latest docuseries that shows the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, workouts and 149 concerts across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She describes her own stage routines as “comparable to running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my entrance so I could rest before I made my entrance. You are working hard the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s effortless and beautiful and ethereal.”
Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. What better figure to emulate than such icons, who have always embodied dreams, idealism and a realm where no one makes a mistake.
