After a long-running run on the iconic Vegas strip, the showgirls from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its elaborate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and critical reviewers who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Currently, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
The Sultan of Sparkle
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his trademark look, clothing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he told a media outlet. “Today's artists are embracing a theatrical, more spectacular, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
A Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they danced across arena stages in glitter, revealing designs and plumes, illuminated against overstated sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, her performers waved giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The results are worlds away from the late-century Britney Spears era of crop tops and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
A Coveted Vintage Style
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls inspire fond memories for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the story of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the shine but without the exposure.”
More Than Just Style: An Symbol of the City
She says showgirls are central to the iconography of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, being present at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
An Allure of Escape
The former showgirl says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This is a notion Swift hints at in a new documentary series that shows the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, workouts and numerous concerts across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own showgirl performances as “similar to running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my cue so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. You’re perspiring the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s simple and beautiful and ethereal.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. What better figure to emulate than such icons, who have always personified fantasy, perfection and a world where nobody misses a mark.
