After a three-decade run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, known for its elaborate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed critics who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
A Sultan of Sequins
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his trademark look, outfitting everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert 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 told a publication. “Contemporary performers are embracing a theatrical, more theatrical, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across concert platforms in sparkles, cut-outs and feathers, spotlighted against overstated sets. Her fashion curator her creative director explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers waved giant feathered fans.
Drawing from the Past
These artists and other hitmakers also reference historical entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The results are vastly different from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of short shirts and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”
The Coveted Classic Style
For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod 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 similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among collectors.
“Showgirls inspire a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, an expert at the an academic institution, who researches the history of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
Chung says the showgirl image are key to the iconography of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still used as an logo of the city, appearing at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
An Allure of Illusion
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. It’s something Swift references in a recent docuseries that documents the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, training and 149 shows across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She explains her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the platform 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 recover before I made my entrance. One is sweating the whole time but maintaining this fantasy that it’s simple and stunning and magical.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. What better figure to look to than showgirls, who have always personified fantasy, idealism and a realm where nobody falters.
