Following a long-running run on the Las Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! gave one last synchronised kick in 2016. The production, known for its intricate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to falling audience numbers and critical commentators who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
A Master of Sequins
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from screen legends to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its projected value, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a publication. “Contemporary performers are embracing a glamorous, more spectacular, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”
A Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that glided all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. 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, ostrich-feather armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across concert platforms in sparkles, revealing designs and feathers, highlighted against overstated sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
Modern stars and other successful musicians also draw on classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and ensemble references. The final look are vastly different from the late-century teen pop of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But some critics are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an umbrella term encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Style
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress paid tribute 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 designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a trio of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls evoke a sense of longing for a historical elegance,” says a historian, a curator at the University of Nevada, who researches the story of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
A Than Simply Style: An Icon of Vegas
She says the showgirl image are integral to the identity of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, appearing at gatherings and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a lasting symbol of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
An Allure of Escape
Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This idea Taylor Swift hints at in a latest behind-the-scenes film that shows the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, training and countless shows across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.
She recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could rest before I went on stage. You’re perspiring the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s easy and stunning and magical.”
Perhaps this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really is found. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. What better figure to emulate than such icons, who have always personified fantasy, perfection and a realm where no one misses a mark.
