After a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its ornate costumes designed by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
A Master of Sequins
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his trademark look, dressing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “New stars are pushing toward a theatrical, more theatrical, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
A Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. Recently, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been adopted by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across arena stages in sequins, cut-outs and feathers, highlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also draw on 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and dance line references. The outcome are vastly different from the 1990s era teen pop of revealing tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are on board with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Vintage Look
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled 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 vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls evoke fond memories for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the an academic institution, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the glitter but without the nudity.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Las Vegas
The expert says the showgirl image are key to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, being present at gatherings and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Vegas glamour,” she says.
The Appeal of Escape
Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This idea the singer references in a latest behind-the-scenes film that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, workouts and countless performances across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could recover before I performed. You’re sweating the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s easy and stunning and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. What better figure to emulate than these performers, who have always embodied fantasy, idealism and a universe where nobody falters.
