Following a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its ornate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and disappointed commentators who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The Master of Sequins
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his signature style, dressing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a theatrical, more dramatic, breathtaking, memorable statement.”
A Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift isn't alone. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across world tours in sequins, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, illuminated against camp sets. A top stylist a fashion expert explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, her performers waved giant feathered fans.
Pulling from History
Modern stars and other hitmakers also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The final look are worlds away from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Retro Look
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent beaded 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 private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke fond memories for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the University of Nevada, who studies the history of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of the City
The expert says this figure are key to the imagery of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, appearing at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Las Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
The Appeal of Escape
Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This is a notion Taylor Swift hints at in a latest behind-the-scenes film that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, gym sessions and 149 shows across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own stage routines as “like completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my moment so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. One is working hard the whole time but crafting this image that it’s easy and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. Is there anyone better to look to than these performers, who have always personified fantasy, perfection and a realm where nobody falters.
