After a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its ornate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
A Sultan of Glitz
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his signature style, clothing everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a media outlet. “Today's artists are striving for a glamorous, more dramatic, show-stopping, grand statement.”
A Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by singers including Dua Lipa as they danced across arena stages in sequins, cut-outs and feathers, highlighted against overstated sets. Her fashion curator her creative director mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant feathered fans.
Drawing from History
These artists and other hitmakers also draw on classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The results are poles apart from the late-century Britney Spears era of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Retro Style
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a see-through sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“This style inspire a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas
The expert says the showgirl image are central to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, showing up at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Las Vegas spectacle,” she says.
An Allure of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the allure. This is a notion Swift hints at in a recent behind-the-scenes film that shows the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, gym sessions and numerous concerts across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
The performer explains her own stage routines as “like extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. One is working hard the whole time but crafting this image that it’s simple and stunning and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. What better figure to look to than these performers, who have always represented dreams, idealism and a universe where nobody makes a mistake.
