After a long-running run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the production Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its elaborate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The Sultan of Sparkle
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are striving for a show-stopping, more dramatic, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
A Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across concert platforms in sparkles, cut-outs and feathers, illuminated against camp sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
Modern stars and other successful musicians also draw on historical performances, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The results are worlds away from the 90s Britney Spears era of crop tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
The Coveted Classic Style
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, another pop star 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 series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“Showgirls bring about nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, 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 glamour, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the exposure.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
The expert says the showgirl image are central to the iconography of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, showing up at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
The Allure of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the attraction. It’s something Swift hints at in a recent documentary series that documents the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, gym sessions and numerous concerts across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own showgirl performances as “comparable to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my cue so I could rest before I performed. One is perspiring the whole time but crafting this image that it’s easy and stunning and ethereal.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. Who better to emulate than such icons, who have always represented dreams, flawlessness and a realm where nobody misses a mark.
