After a three-decade stint on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The production, known for its intricate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
A King of Sparkle
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his signature style, dressing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a publication. “Today's artists are embracing a theatrical, more theatrical, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Musical Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion 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 12th studio album. The crystal-covered bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they danced across world tours in glitter, revealing designs and feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from Tradition
These artists and other successful musicians also reference 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The results are poles apart from the 90s Britney Spears era of revealing tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Classic Style
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says a historian, an expert at the University of Nevada, who researches the story of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
More Than Simply Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
The expert says this figure are integral to the identity of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, appearing at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Vegas glitz and glamour,” Chung says.
The Allure of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This idea Swift hints at in a latest docuseries that documents the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, training and numerous performances across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own stage routines as “comparable to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my cue so I could recover before I performed. You are perspiring the whole time but creating this image that it’s easy and stunning and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to look to than showgirls, who have always represented dreams, idealism and a world where no one misses a mark.
