After a three-decade run on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its ornate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and critical commentators who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.
A Sultan of Sequins
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his trademark look, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its projected value, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a newspaper. “Today's artists are striving for a theatrical, more spectacular, breathtaking, memorable statement.”
The Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across arena stages in glitter, cut-outs and plumes, illuminated against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert told a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including burlesque and ensemble references. The outcome are worlds away from the 90s teen pop of short shirts and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Vintage Look
For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the history of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
More Than Just Style: An Symbol of the City
Chung says this figure are key to the imagery of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still used as an symbol of the city, being present at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
An Appeal of Transformation
The former showgirl says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the appeal. It’s something Swift alludes to in a recent docuseries that captures the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, workouts and numerous shows across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own showgirl performances as “similar to running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my cue so I could recover before I went on stage. You are working hard the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s effortless and stunning and ethereal.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. Who better to emulate than such icons, who have always represented fantasy, idealism and a world where no one misses a mark.
