After a three-decade run on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the revue Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The show, renowned for its intricate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and critical critics who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
A Sultan of Sequins
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his signature style, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a publication. “New stars are embracing a theatrical, more theatrical, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
The Musical Comeback
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of mainstream fashion in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Recently, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across concert platforms in sparkles, cut-outs and feathers, highlighted against camp sets. Her fashion curator her creative director mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 1950s, her performers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other successful musicians also draw on classic performances, including classic theater and ensemble references. The outcome are worlds away from the 90s Britney Spears era of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
A Coveted Classic Look
For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer embellished dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn at an awards show 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 favorite among collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke a sense of longing for a past glamour,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who studies the history of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
More Than Simply Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
Chung says this figure are central to the iconography of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still used as an symbol of the city, being present at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Vegas glamour,” she says.
The Allure of Escape
Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This idea Taylor Swift alludes to in a new docuseries that captures the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense rehearsals, training and numerous concerts across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own stage routines as “like completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could recover before I made my entrance. You are sweating the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s easy and stunning and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. Who better to emulate than such icons, who have always personified dreams, flawlessness and a realm where no one makes a mistake.
