Following a 31-year run on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, known for its intricate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The King of Glitz
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his signature style, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he told a media outlet. “New stars are striving for a show-stopping, more theatrical, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
A Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by singers including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across arena stages in sparkles, revealing designs and feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and ensemble references. The results are worlds away from the 1990s era pop style of short shirts and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. 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 today's icons.”
A Coveted Retro Look
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an undisclosed sum 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 series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says a historian, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of the City
Chung says showgirls are central to the iconography of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still used as an emblem of the city, showing up at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
The Appeal of Transformation
The former showgirl says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the allure. This idea Swift references in a recent docuseries that documents the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, gym sessions and numerous shows across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own stage routines as “similar to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I performed. One is sweating the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s simple and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to turn to than showgirls, who have always represented make-believe, idealism and a world where no one makes a mistake.
