Following a 31-year tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The production, known for its elaborate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.
The King of Sequins
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his trademark look, clothing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its projected value, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a newspaper. “Today's artists are striving for a show-stopping, more theatrical, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
A Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by music artists including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across concert platforms in sequins, strategic openings and plumes, highlighted against overstated sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco told a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, her performers waved giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from Tradition
These artists and other hitmakers also reference classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The results are vastly different from the 90s Britney Spears era of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “treated as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Look
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a see-through beaded dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously 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 hit among fashion collectors.
“This style inspire nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the history of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the shine but without the exposure.”
A Than Simply Style: An Icon of Vegas
She says showgirls are key to the iconography of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was surrounded by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still employed as an emblem of the city, being present at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Illusion
Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the appeal. It’s something Swift references in a latest behind-the-scenes film that documents the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, workouts and numerous performances across multiple nations, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own showgirl performances as “like running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. You are perspiring the whole time but crafting this image that it’s effortless and stunning and ethereal.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to emulate than showgirls, who have always represented fantasy, flawlessness and a realm where nobody falters.
