After a three-decade run on the iconic Vegas strip, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its elaborate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and critical commentators who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The Master of Sparkle
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a media outlet. “Today's artists are embracing a glamorous, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
A Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift isn't alone. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across concert platforms in sparkles, strategic openings and feathers, highlighted against overstated sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The final look are vastly different 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 on board with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
A Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a translucent beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, Miley Cyrus paid an significant price to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously 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 popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“The showgirl aesthetic bring about fond memories for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the story of showgirls. “Now it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been modified. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
A Than Just Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
She says the showgirl image are integral to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, being present at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
An Allure of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This idea Taylor Swift references in a recent docuseries that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, gym sessions and countless concerts across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own stage routines as “comparable to running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could rest before I made my entrance. One is sweating the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s simple and stunning and magical.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Is there anyone better to look to than showgirls, who have always represented dreams, idealism and a universe where nobody misses a mark.
