Following a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the production Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The extravaganza, known for its elaborate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to declining audience numbers and critical reviewers who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
The Master of Sequins
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, far exceeding its initial estimate, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he told a publication. “New stars are striving for a theatrical, more spectacular, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
A Musical Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the centre of popular culture 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 new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by singers including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across concert platforms in sparkles, cut-outs and feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, her performers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.
Pulling from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also reference classic performances, including classic theater and chorus line references. The final look are worlds away from the late-century Britney Spears era of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an broad label covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Classic Look
For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn earlier in the year 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 favorite among collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the story of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the bare skin.”
More Than Just Style: An Symbol of Vegas
The expert says this figure are key to the identity of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, appearing at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This is a notion Taylor Swift alludes to in a new behind-the-scenes film that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, workouts and numerous performances across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She explains her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the green rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could recover before I performed. You are perspiring the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s easy and beautiful and ethereal.”
Perhaps this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Who better to turn to than showgirls, who have always embodied make-believe, flawlessness and a universe where nobody misses a mark.
