After a 31-year run on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the production Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its intricate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed critics who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
A King of Sequins
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his signature style, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a media outlet. “New stars are embracing a theatrical, more theatrical, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
A Musical Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across arena stages in sequins, revealing designs and feathers, highlighted against camp 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 – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, her performers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from Tradition
These artists and other chart toppers also reference 19th-century performances, including burlesque and chorus line references. The results are worlds away from the late-century Britney Spears era of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
A Coveted Classic Look
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a see-through embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the shine but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
The expert says the showgirl image are key to the imagery of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, appearing at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
The Appeal of Escape
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the appeal. It’s something Taylor Swift references in a new docuseries that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, workouts and 149 performances across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my moment so I could rest before I went on stage. You are perspiring the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s effortless and stunning and magical.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Who better to turn to than such icons, who have always represented make-believe, flawlessness and a world where nobody makes a mistake.
