After a 31-year run on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its ornate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.
The King of Sequins
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his trademark look, dressing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “New stars are pushing toward a show-stopping, more dramatic, breathtaking, memorable statement.”
The Mainstream Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by singers including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across concert platforms in sparkles, strategic openings and plumes, illuminated against overstated sets. A top stylist her creative director explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also draw on historical entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The results are poles apart from the 90s pop style of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
A Coveted Retro Style
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, 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. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style inspire a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the shine but without the exposure.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Icon of the City
She says the showgirl image are key to the identity of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, appearing at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
The Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. It’s something Taylor Swift alludes to in a latest docuseries that documents the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, gym sessions and numerous shows across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
The performer describes her own stage routines as “comparable to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I performed. You are perspiring the whole time but creating this image that it’s easy and beautiful and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Is there anyone better to turn to than these performers, who have always personified fantasy, idealism and a realm where no one falters.
