Following a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its ornate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Now, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
The Sultan of Sparkle
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his signature style, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times 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 attractive for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are embracing a show-stopping, more dramatic, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Musical Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre 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 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they danced across world tours in glitter, revealing designs and plumes, highlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from Tradition
These artists and other hitmakers also draw on historical entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The results are worlds away from the 90s pop style of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
The Highly Sought-After Classic Look
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“Showgirls inspire fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the shine but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
Chung says the showgirl image are key to the identity of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, showing up at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
The Allure of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. This is a notion the singer hints at in a latest docuseries that documents the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, gym sessions and 149 performances across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my moment so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. One is working hard the whole time but creating this image that it’s easy and gorgeous and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. Who better to emulate than showgirls, who have always embodied fantasy, perfection and a realm where no one falters.
