After a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the revue Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its elaborate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
The Sultan of Sparkle
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are embracing a theatrical, more spectacular, breathtaking, grand statement.”
The Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they danced across world tours in sequins, strategic openings and ostrich feathers, highlighted against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The results are vastly different from the late-century Britney Spears era of crop tops and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are convinced with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“This style bring about a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says an archivist, an expert at the University of Nevada, who studies the history of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the shine but without the nudity.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of the City
The expert says the showgirl image are central to the iconography of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, showing up at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
An Allure of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the allure. This is a notion Swift references in a latest docuseries that documents the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, workouts and 149 shows across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She describes her own stage routines as “similar to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the performance area 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 went on stage. One is perspiring the whole time but crafting this image that it’s easy and beautiful 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. Who better to emulate than such icons, who have always personified dreams, flawlessness and a universe where nobody makes a mistake.
