Following a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its intricate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and critical reviewers who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
A Sultan of Glitz
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed 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 seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a publication. “Contemporary performers are embracing a glamorous, more spectacular, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Musical Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The crystal-covered bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they danced across world tours in sparkles, strategic openings and feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Pulling from History
Modern stars and other hitmakers also take inspiration from 19th-century entertainment forms, including burlesque and dance line references. The final look are poles apart from the 1990s era teen pop of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
A Coveted Classic Style
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says a historian, an expert at the an academic institution, who studies the story of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Style: An Icon of Vegas
She says the showgirl image are key to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, appearing at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Vegas glamour,” she says.
An Allure of Transformation
Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This idea Swift hints at in a new documentary series that captures the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, workouts and countless shows across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She describes her own stage routines as “comparable to extreme physical exertion 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 lower level. I had to leave early for my cue so I could rest before I made my entrance. You are working hard the whole time but crafting this image that it’s easy and beautiful and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Is there anyone better to emulate than these performers, who have always represented fantasy, flawlessness and a world where nobody misses a mark.
