After a 31-year tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its elaborate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and disappointed commentators who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
The Master of Sequins
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a media outlet. “New stars are embracing a theatrical, more theatrical, show-stopping, grand statement.”
A Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across arena stages in sparkles, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from History
Modern stars and other successful musicians also reference historical entertainment forms, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The outcome are worlds away from the 1990s era teen pop of revealing tops and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Vintage Look
For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“This style bring about nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the story of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the nudity.”
More Than Just Style: An Icon 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. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, appearing at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Transformation
Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This is a notion Swift hints at in a latest documentary series that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, gym sessions and 149 performances across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own stage routines as “similar to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could rest before I performed. You are sweating the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s simple and stunning and magical.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. What better figure to look to than such icons, who have always embodied dreams, idealism and a world where nobody falters.
