After a three-decade stint on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its ornate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed commentators who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
The King of Sequins
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “New stars are striving for a theatrical, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, entrance-making statement.”
A Mainstream Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by music artists including Dua Lipa as they zoomed across arena stages in sequins, revealing designs and plumes, illuminated against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from the Past
These artists and other successful musicians also take inspiration from 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The results are worlds away from the 90s pop style of revealing tops and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But certain observers are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Look
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style inspire a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the University of Nevada, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the exposure.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas
Chung says this figure are key to the identity of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still used as an logo of the city, showing up at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
The Allure of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the allure. This is a notion Taylor Swift alludes to in a latest documentary series that documents the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, gym sessions and countless shows across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her headdress was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my entrance so I could rest before I made my entrance. One is perspiring the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s effortless and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Is there anyone better to emulate than these performers, who have always personified fantasy, flawlessness and a world where nobody misses a mark.
