After a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its intricate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed commentators who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Now, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
A Sultan of Sequins
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his signature style, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created 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 grew up with”, he explained to a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are striving for a theatrical, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
A Musical Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across arena stages in sequins, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, highlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist a fashion expert told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, her performers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also draw on classic entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The results are poles apart from the late-century pop style of revealing tops and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are convinced with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
A Coveted Classic Style
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, Miley Cyrus paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style evoke fond memories for a past glamour,” says a historian, an expert at the an academic institution, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the shine but without the exposure.”
More Than Simply Style: An Icon of Las 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 accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still employed as an logo of the city, being present at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
The Appeal of Transformation
Hardy says the complete change of a stage character is part of the allure. This is a notion Taylor Swift hints at in a latest docuseries that captures the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, workouts and countless concerts across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own showgirl performances as “like completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my cue so I could recover before I went on stage. One is perspiring the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s effortless and beautiful and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. Who better to emulate than showgirls, who have always represented make-believe, idealism and a universe where no one falters.
