After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the production Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its elaborate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and disappointed critics who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Currently, almost a decade later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
The Sultan of Glitz
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a publication. “Contemporary performers are striving for a theatrical, more theatrical, breathtaking, grand statement.”
A Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across arena stages in glitter, revealing designs and feathers, highlighted against overstated sets. Her fashion curator her creative director told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers waved giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from History
These artists and other chart toppers also take inspiration from historical entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The results are poles apart 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 glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “used as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
A Highly Sought-After Retro Look
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show 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 bring about nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the story of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the glitter but without the exposure.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas
The expert says the showgirl image are central to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, being present at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Vegas spectacle,” she says.
An Appeal of Transformation
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This is a notion Swift alludes to in a recent documentary series that documents the off-camera action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, workouts and 149 performances across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She explains her own showgirl performances as “comparable to completing an endurance race in high heels every night”. Her headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could rest before I made my entrance. You’re working hard the whole time but creating this image that it’s easy and stunning and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. Is there anyone better to look to than such icons, who have always represented fantasy, flawlessness and a universe where nobody makes a mistake.
