After a three-decade run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its ornate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and critical critics who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
The King of Glitz
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “New stars are striving for a theatrical, more theatrical, breathtaking, grand statement.”
A Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the entertainment titan 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 called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across world tours in sparkles, strategic openings and plumes, spotlighted against camp sets. A top stylist her creative director told a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, her performers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from Tradition
Modern stars and other successful musicians also draw on 19th-century performances, including burlesque and ensemble references. The final look are worlds away from the late-century pop style of revealing tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that came before them.
But certain observers are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “employed as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Classic Look
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a translucent beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“This style inspire fond memories for a historical elegance,” says a historian, a curator at the University of Nevada, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of the City
Chung says this figure are key to the imagery of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, Jung says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, appearing at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Transformation
Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the allure. This idea Swift references in a latest docuseries that captures the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, gym sessions and numerous performances across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
The performer recalls her own showgirl performances as “like running a marathon in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I went on stage. You are working hard the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s effortless and stunning and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. Who better to turn to than these performers, who have always personified make-believe, flawlessness and a universe where nobody misses a mark.
