After a three-decade stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The production, known for its elaborate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
The Master of Sequins
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his signature style, clothing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he stated in an interview with a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are striving for a theatrical, more spectacular, show-stopping, grand statement.”
The Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Recently, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across concert platforms in glitter, revealing designs and plumes, highlighted against camp sets. A top stylist a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, her performers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Pulling from History
These artists and other successful musicians also draw on historical performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The outcome are vastly different from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 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 modern pop stars.”
The Coveted Classic Look
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, 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 undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show 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 popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style inspire fond memories for a past glamour,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who studies the story of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the shine but without the nudity.”
A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of the City
The expert says showgirls are key to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, appearing at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
An Allure of Transformation
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. This is a notion Taylor Swift alludes to in a new documentary series that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, training and numerous concerts across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own stage routines as “like running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the performance area 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 performed. You’re perspiring the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s simple and beautiful and ethereal.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Is there anyone better to turn to than these performers, who have always embodied dreams, idealism and a world where nobody makes a mistake.
