Following a long-running run on the iconic Vegas strip, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its intricate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
A King of Sequins
Known as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a publication. “Contemporary performers are embracing a theatrical, more dramatic, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
The Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. 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 rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, plumed armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across concert platforms in glitter, strategic openings and feathers, illuminated against theatrical sets. A top stylist her creative director told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, her performers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from the Past
Modern stars and other successful musicians also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The results are worlds away from the 90s pop style of short shirts and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently modern pop stars.”
A Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“This style bring about nostalgia for a past glamour,” says an archivist, a curator at the University of Nevada, who studies the history of showgirls. “Currently it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of the City
She says this figure are key to the identity of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was surrounded by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, being present at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
An Allure of Transformation
The former showgirl says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the appeal. This idea Swift references in a latest behind-the-scenes film that documents the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, gym sessions and 149 concerts across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own nights in the spotlight as “like running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my cue so I could recover before I made my entrance. You’re working hard the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s effortless and gorgeous and ethereal.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Is there anyone better to emulate than these performers, who have always represented make-believe, perfection and a realm where no one makes a mistake.
