Following a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its intricate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
The King of Sequins
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its projected value, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are striving for a show-stopping, more dramatic, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
A Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by singers including Dua Lipa as they danced across world tours in sparkles, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including burlesque and dance line references. The results are poles apart from the 1990s era teen pop of short shirts and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
A Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among vintage enthusiasts.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who researches the story of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the glitter but without the exposure.”
More Than Just Style: An Symbol of Vegas
Chung says the showgirl image are integral to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, appearing at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Las Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
The Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. This is a notion Taylor Swift references in a latest documentary series that documents the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, training and countless concerts across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
The performer describes her own showgirl performances as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could recover before I made my entrance. You’re perspiring the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s simple and stunning and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. Who better to look to than showgirls, who have always embodied make-believe, idealism and a universe where no one misses a mark.
