Following a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its elaborate costumes designed by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
A King of Sparkle
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “Today's artists are embracing a theatrical, more spectacular, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Mainstream Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. Recently, 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 shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by singers including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across concert platforms in sequins, strategic openings and plumes, spotlighted against camp sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers waved giant feathered fans.
Drawing from Tradition
Modern stars and other successful musicians also draw on classic entertainment forms, including burlesque and chorus line references. The outcome are worlds away from the 1990s era pop style of short shirts and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But certain observers are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
A Coveted Retro Look
For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls evoke nostalgia for a past glamour,” says a historian, an expert at the University of Nevada, who researches the story of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the glitter but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
Chung says this figure are key to the identity of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, showing up at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Vegas glamour,” she says.
The Allure of Illusion
Hardy says the complete change of a stage character is part of the allure. This is a notion Taylor Swift hints at in a new docuseries that shows the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, workouts and countless concerts across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own showgirl performances as “like extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I performed. You’re sweating the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s easy and stunning and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. What better figure to emulate than such icons, who have always embodied make-believe, flawlessness and a realm where no one makes a mistake.
