Following a 31-year tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The show, known for its intricate costumes designed by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and critical critics who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
A King of Sparkle
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his trademark look, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a media outlet. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a show-stopping, more dramatic, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
The Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they danced across concert platforms in sparkles, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, illuminated against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
These artists and other successful musicians also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including burlesque and dance line references. The final look are vastly different from the late-century pop style of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are on board with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a see-through beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire fond memories for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the University of Nevada, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Vegas
The expert says the showgirl image are central to the identity of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, being present at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
An Allure of Illusion
The former showgirl says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the attraction. This is a notion Taylor Swift alludes to in a new documentary series that documents the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, workouts and 149 performances across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She describes her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the steps to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could rest before I made my entrance. You’re perspiring the whole time but creating this image that it’s effortless and stunning and ethereal.”
Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Is there anyone better to look to than showgirls, who have always personified dreams, perfection and a realm where no one misses a mark.
