After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the production Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its intricate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and disappointed commentators who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.
The King of Sequins
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his signature style, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he told a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are striving for a theatrical, more theatrical, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
A Mainstream Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by singers including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across world tours in glitter, strategic openings and plumes, illuminated against overstated sets. Her fashion curator her creative director mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The results are poles apart from the 1990s era teen pop of revealing tops and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously 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 popular item among fashion collectors.
“This style bring about fond memories for a past glamour,” says a historian, an expert at the University of Nevada, who studies the story of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the shine but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Style: An Symbol of Vegas
She says showgirls are key to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still used as an symbol of the city, appearing at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
The Allure of Illusion
Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This is a notion Swift hints at in a latest documentary series that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, workouts and 149 shows across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own stage routines as “similar to running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my moment so I could recover before I went on stage. You’re perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s easy and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Is there anyone better to emulate than these performers, who have always embodied dreams, idealism and a world where nobody falters.
