After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the performers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, renowned for its elaborate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and critical reviewers who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.
The King of Glitz
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical showgirl glamour his signature style, outfitting everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he told a newspaper. “New stars are striving for a theatrical, more spectacular, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
The Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by music artists including Dua Lipa as they danced across concert platforms in sparkles, cut-outs and plumes, spotlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Pulling from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also reference 19th-century performances, including classic theater and chorus line references. The outcome are worlds away from the 1990s era pop style of revealing tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are convinced with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an catch-all phrase including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
A Coveted Retro Style
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created 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 retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“Showgirls evoke nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the story of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
More Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas
Chung says showgirls are key to the imagery of Sin City. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, showing up at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Vegas glamour,” she says.
An Appeal of Illusion
The former showgirl says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the appeal. This idea Taylor Swift references in a new behind-the-scenes film that documents the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, gym sessions and countless shows across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to start early for my entrance so I could rest before I went on stage. One is perspiring the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s effortless and stunning and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. What better figure to turn to than these performers, who have always represented dreams, idealism and a realm where no one makes a mistake.
