🔗 Share this article

After a 31-year tenure on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the spectacle Jubilee! executed their last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, known for its ornate costumes crafted by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to dwindling audience numbers and unimpressed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

Today, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.

The King of Sequins

Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his trademark look, clothing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its projected value, while a silver and gold beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.

“I believe it looks more enticing for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a newspaper. “New stars are pushing toward a show-stopping, more dramatic, show-stopping, memorable statement.”

The Pop Culture Comeback

It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.

The singer isn't alone. This year, showgirl inspirations have been embraced by singers including Miley Cyrus as they zoomed across arena stages in sparkles, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against overstated sets. A top stylist her creative director explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers waved giant feathered fans.

Pulling from History

These artists and other successful musicians also take inspiration from 19th-century entertainment forms, including classic theater and dance line references. The final look are poles apart from the late-century pop style of revealing tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.

But not everyone are on board with this showgirl revival. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even modern pop stars.”

The Highly Sought-After Vintage Look

For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the actor wore a semi-sheer sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, another pop star paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year 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 favorite among collectors.

“Showgirls inspire a sense of longing for a bygone era of glitz,” says an archivist, a curator at the University of Nevada, who researches the legacy of showgirls. “Currently it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been modified. It has got all the elegance, the crystals and the glitter but without the nudity.”

A Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Vegas

She says the showgirl image are central to the identity of Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any traditional showgirl productions, the historian says they are still used as an logo of the city, showing up at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Las Vegas spectacle,” she says.

The Allure of Illusion

Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the allure. This idea Swift hints at in a recent behind-the-scenes film that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, workouts and 149 concerts across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.

She recalls her own showgirl performances as “similar to completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the staircase to the platform from the backstage area three floors below in the underground. I had to start early for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. One is working hard the whole time but creating this image that it’s simple and beautiful and ethereal.”

Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. Who better to emulate than these performers, who have always embodied make-believe, flawlessness and a world where nobody falters.