Following a 31-year run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, known for its elaborate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
A King of Glitz
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his trademark look, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, far exceeding its estimated price, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are striving for a show-stopping, more spectacular, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
A Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across arena stages in sequins, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, illuminated against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from Tradition
Modern stars and other hitmakers also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including burlesque and dance line references. The results are vastly different from the 1990s era pop style of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
A Coveted Retro Look
For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year 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.
“This style evoke a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, a curator at the University of Nevada, who researches the story of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the glitter but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
Chung says the showgirl image are integral to the iconography of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, being present at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
An Allure of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This is a notion the singer references in a new docuseries that shows the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, training and numerous shows across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own showgirl performances as “like extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my entrance so I could rest before I performed. One is working hard the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s easy and stunning and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for a break from reality. Who better to turn to than these performers, who have always represented dreams, flawlessness and a world where no one falters.
