Following a long-running run on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The show, known for its elaborate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.
A King of Sequins
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Recently, a “see-through” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its projected value, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I believe it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a publication. “Today's artists are embracing a glamorous, more theatrical, breathtaking, grand statement.”
A Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of mainstream fashion in 2025 thanks 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 bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
She is part of a trend. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by music artists including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across arena stages in sparkles, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco told a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, her performers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
These artists and other successful musicians also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The results are poles apart from the 90s pop style of crop tops and cargo pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “employed as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
A Highly Sought-After Vintage Look
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the actor wore a translucent sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“Showgirls inspire fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been modified. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the shine but without the bare skin.”
More Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Las Vegas
She says this figure are integral to the iconography of Sin City. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, showing up at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
The Allure of Illusion
Hardy says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the appeal. It’s something Swift hints at in a recent 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 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy recalls her own showgirl performances as “comparable to completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the steps to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my cue so I could catch my breath before I went on stage. You are perspiring the whole time but creating this image that it’s simple and beautiful and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. Who better to look to than these performers, who have always personified fantasy, idealism and a universe where no one falters.
