Following a three-decade run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The production, famous for its elaborate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who called it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
A Master of Glitz
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, clothing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its projected value, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a theatrical, more dramatic, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
A Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by singers including Dua Lipa as they danced across world tours in glitter, strategic openings and plumes, spotlighted against camp sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers wafted giant feathered fans.
Pulling from Tradition
These artists and other chart toppers also draw on 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The final look are vastly different from the 1990s era teen pop of revealing tops and utilitarian trousers, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Style
For younger and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an private amount 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 vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style bring about a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says an archivist, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the history of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been adapted. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas
She says the showgirl image are central to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still used as an symbol of the city, being present at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Las Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
An Appeal of Transformation
The former showgirl says the complete change of a stage character is part of the appeal. It’s something Swift alludes to in a new behind-the-scenes film that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, gym sessions and numerous shows across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She explains her own stage routines as “like running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my cue so I could rest before I performed. You’re sweating the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s easy and gorgeous and magical.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to turn to than such icons, who have always represented make-believe, flawlessness and a realm where no one makes a mistake.
