🔗 Share this article

After a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its elaborate costumes created by style icon Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and critical reviewers who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.

Currently, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.

The Master of Sparkle

Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his signature style, dressing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a metallic beaded bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.

“I think it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is seeking something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a publication. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a glamorous, more spectacular, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”

The Mainstream Resurgence

It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering 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 music artists including Dua Lipa as they danced across concert platforms in glitter, revealing designs and feathers, highlighted against camp sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director explained to a fashion magazine he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, her performers waved giant ostrich feather fans.

Pulling from the Past

Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also reference classic performances, including classic theater and chorus line references. The outcome are vastly different from the 1990s era pop style of crop tops and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.

But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl revival. A former performer, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “used as an catch-all phrase encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”

The Highly Sought-After Classic Style

For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become incredibly sought-after. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through embellished dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, Miley Cyrus paid an significant price 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 classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.

“This style bring about nostalgia for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy 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

The expert says this figure are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Jung says they are still featured as an logo of the city, appearing at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Vegas glamour,” Chung says.

The Appeal of Illusion

Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl persona is part of the allure. This is a notion the singer hints at in a latest behind-the-scenes film that captures the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling rehearsals, training and 149 performances across multiple nations, each running for 3.5 hours.

The performer recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “similar to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my entrance so I could recover before I made my entrance. One is sweating the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s effortless and gorgeous and dreamlike.”

It could be this is where the appeal of the showgirl fantasy really lies. 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 dreams, flawlessness and a universe where nobody makes a mistake.