After a 31-year run on the iconic Vegas strip, the showgirls from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its elaborate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and critical critics who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
A Sultan of Sequins
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his signature style, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its initial estimate, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a newspaper. “Today's artists are striving for a show-stopping, more theatrical, show-stopping, grand statement.”
A Musical Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across concert platforms in sequins, cut-outs and plumes, spotlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from Tradition
Modern stars and other hitmakers also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The results are poles apart from the 1990s era pop style of short shirts and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Classic Style
For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the University of Nevada, who documents the story of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the glitter but without the exposure.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
The expert says the showgirl image are key to the iconography of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, appearing at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Transformation
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. It’s something Swift hints at in a new documentary series that captures the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, training and 149 performances across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own showgirl performances as “comparable to completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my moment so I could catch my breath before I performed. You are perspiring the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s simple and beautiful and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Is there anyone better to turn to than showgirls, who have always represented dreams, flawlessness and a universe where no one falters.
