After a three-decade stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the spectacle Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The production, known for its ornate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and critical commentators who described it as a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is making a comeback.
The Master of Sparkle
Referred to as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its estimated price, while a shimmering tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he told a newspaper. “New stars are embracing a glamorous, more dramatic, breathtaking, grand statement.”
The Mainstream Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The crystal-covered bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly 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 adopted by music artists including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across concert platforms in sparkles, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, illuminated against overstated sets. Her fashion curator a fashion expert told a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers wafted giant ostrich feather fans.
Drawing from the Past
These artists and other hitmakers also take inspiration from historical entertainment forms, including burlesque and chorus line references. The results are poles apart from the 90s pop style of revealing tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But certain observers are convinced with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently Taylor Swift.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Look
For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer beaded dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“The showgirl aesthetic bring about fond memories for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘acceptable’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the elegance, the sparkles and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas
She says this figure are central to the identity of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, showing up at corporate events and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a remaining icon of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.
An Allure of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This is a notion Swift hints at in a new behind-the-scenes film that documents the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, gym sessions and countless concerts across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own nights in the spotlight as “like extreme physical exertion in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the green rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I went on stage. You are working hard the whole time but creating this image that it’s effortless and beautiful and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to turn to than showgirls, who have always embodied fantasy, perfection and a universe where no one makes a mistake.
