After a 31-year tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its intricate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
The King of Sequins
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his trademark look, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its initial estimate, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he stated in an interview with a publication. “New stars are striving for a glamorous, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The crystal-covered bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across arena stages in sparkles, strategic openings and feathers, highlighted against overstated sets. A top stylist a fashion expert mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant feathered fans.
Pulling from History
Modern stars and other successful musicians also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and chorus line references. The outcome are worlds away from the 1990s era pop style of short shirts and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But certain observers are convinced with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Classic Style
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a semi-sheer embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, 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, Carpenter wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among vintage enthusiasts.
“The showgirl aesthetic bring about fond memories for a past glamour,” says a historian, an expert at the University of Nevada, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the crystals and the glitter but without the exposure.”
A Than Just Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
Chung says the showgirl image are integral to the imagery of Vegas. She points to one-time leader 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 featured as an emblem of the city, being present at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
The Allure of Transformation
The former showgirl says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This idea Taylor Swift references in a latest behind-the-scenes film that shows the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, workouts and 149 performances across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own showgirl performances as “like completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my entrance so I could rest before I made my entrance. One is sweating the whole time but creating this image that it’s easy and stunning and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. What better figure to emulate than showgirls, who have always represented fantasy, perfection and a world where no one makes a mistake.
