After a 31-year stint on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its ornate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
A Master of Sequins
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a publication. “Today's artists are embracing a show-stopping, more spectacular, breathtaking, memorable statement.”
A Musical Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by music artists including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across world tours in sparkles, cut-outs and feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and ensemble references. The results are poles apart from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
The Coveted Classic Style
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an undisclosed sum 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 hit among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the University of Nevada, who documents the story of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of the City
Chung says this figure are integral to the identity of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, appearing at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
The Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. This idea Swift hints at in a new behind-the-scenes film that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling preparations, workouts and numerous concerts across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She describes her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could recover before I went on stage. You are perspiring the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s effortless and stunning and magical.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. Who better to turn to than such icons, who have always represented dreams, flawlessness and a world where nobody makes a mistake.
