Following a three-decade run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its elaborate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed critics who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
A Master of Sequins
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his trademark look, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he told a media outlet. “New stars are embracing a show-stopping, more spectacular, breathtaking, grand statement.”
The Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across arena stages in sequins, strategic openings and plumes, illuminated against camp sets. A top stylist a fashion expert told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including classic theater and chorus line references. The results are vastly different from the late-century pop style of short shirts and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
A Coveted Vintage Look
For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls bring about nostalgia for a past glamour,” says a historian, an expert at the an academic institution, who documents the story of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the glitter but without the nudity.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas
She says the showgirl image are integral to the iconography of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still used as an logo of the city, appearing at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
The Allure of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. This idea Swift hints at in a new documentary series that documents the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, gym sessions and countless concerts across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
She describes her own stage routines as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my cue so I could recover before I performed. You are perspiring the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s effortless and beautiful and ethereal.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. What better figure to turn to than such icons, who have always represented dreams, flawlessness and a world where no one misses a mark.
