After a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the production Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its intricate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
A Sultan of Sequins
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his signature style, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Today's artists are striving for a show-stopping, more spectacular, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they danced across arena stages in glitter, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, highlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also reference classic performances, including classic theater and dance line references. The outcome are worlds away from the late-century teen pop of short shirts and baggy pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are on board with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Retro Look
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a trio of retro 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 Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who studies the story of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the crystals and the shine but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas
She says the showgirl image are central to the imagery of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still used as an logo of the city, being present at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
The Allure of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the allure. It’s something Swift references in a latest documentary series that captures the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, gym sessions and 149 performances across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.
The performer recalls her own showgirl performances as “like extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my moment so I could recover before I went on stage. You’re working hard the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s easy and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. What better figure to turn to than such icons, who have always embodied make-believe, flawlessness and a realm where nobody falters.
