After a 31-year tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the production Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its elaborate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
The Sultan of Sequins
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his signature style, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a glamorous, more dramatic, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
The Musical Revival
It’s a look that glided 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 original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across arena stages in glitter, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, illuminated against camp sets. A top stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also take inspiration from 19th-century entertainment forms, including burlesque and ensemble references. The results are poles apart from the 1990s era teen pop of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Look
For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a see-through embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer 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 trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among collectors.
“This style evoke nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, an expert at the University of Nevada, who researches the story of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the glitter but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
Chung says the showgirl image are key to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still featured as an logo of the city, appearing at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
The Allure of Illusion
Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. This is a notion the singer hints at in a latest documentary series that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, training and numerous shows across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “like running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I performed. You’re sweating the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s effortless and beautiful and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Is there anyone better to look to than these performers, who have always personified dreams, idealism and a realm where no one falters.
