Following a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its ornate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and critical critics who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
A Sultan of Sparkle
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a media outlet. “Today's artists are pushing toward a theatrical, more dramatic, breathtaking, grand statement.”
A Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. Recently, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by music artists including Dua Lipa as they danced across arena stages in sequins, strategic openings and feathers, highlighted against overstated sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from Tradition
Modern stars and other hitmakers also draw on historical performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The final look are worlds away from the 1990s era pop style of revealing tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire nostalgia for a past glamour,” says an archivist, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Style: An Symbol of the City
Chung says this figure are key to the imagery of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still used as an logo of the city, appearing at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Las Vegas spectacle,” she says.
An Allure of Escape
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. It’s something Taylor Swift references in a recent behind-the-scenes film that documents the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, workouts and numerous performances across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own nights in the spotlight as “like running a marathon in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could recover before I performed. You are sweating the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s simple and beautiful and magical.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to turn to than these performers, who have always embodied dreams, idealism and a universe where nobody makes a mistake.
