Following a long-running run on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! executed their last synchronised kick in 2016. The show, famous for its ornate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed critics who labeled it a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Now, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is experiencing a revival.
The King of Sequins
Referred to as the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his trademark look, outfitting everyone from screen legends to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its projected value, while a metallic fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more appealing for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a media outlet. “Today's artists are striving for a theatrical, more dramatic, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. In the past few months, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by pop stars including Miley Cyrus as they whizzed across arena stages in sparkles, revealing designs and plumes, illuminated against camp sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco told a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, her performers waved giant feathered fans.
Pulling from Tradition
These artists and other chart toppers also draw on 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and ensemble references. The results are poles apart from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are on board with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
A Coveted Vintage Style
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a translucent embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus 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, Carpenter wore a series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.
“Showgirls evoke fond memories for a past glamour,” says a historian, head of special collections at the an academic institution, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the shine but without the nudity.”
A Than Simply Style: An Icon of Las Vegas
Chung says showgirls are integral to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still featured as an logo of the city, showing up at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a lasting figure of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
An Allure of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the appeal. It’s something Swift references in a new behind-the-scenes film that shows the behind-the-scenes action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, gym sessions and countless concerts across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
She describes her own stage routines as “similar to extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my cue so I could recover before I performed. One is sweating the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s easy and beautiful and magical.”
Maybe this is where the appeal of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Who better to look to than these performers, who have always personified fantasy, perfection and a world where nobody falters.
