Following a 31-year stint on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its intricate costumes designed by style icon Bob Mackie, came to an end due to declining audience numbers and critical critics who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Currently, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is experiencing a revival.
A Master of Sparkle
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his trademark look, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to pop royalty. Earlier this month, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a publication. “Today's artists are pushing toward a theatrical, more dramatic, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
The Mainstream Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered 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 pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they danced across concert platforms in sparkles, revealing designs and plumes, highlighted against overstated sets. A top stylist her creative director explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, her performers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also draw on classic performances, including burlesque and dance line references. The outcome are worlds away from the 90s pop style of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But some critics are on board with this showgirl renaissance. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even Taylor Swift.”
A Coveted Classic Style
For millennial and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a see-through embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie tasseled mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a series of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among vintage enthusiasts.
“This style inspire fond memories for a bygone era of glitz,” says a historian, a curator at the a Las Vegas university, who studies the legacy of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
A Than Simply Style: An Symbol of Vegas
The expert says this figure are key to the identity of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, appearing at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas spectacle,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a stage character is part of the allure. It’s something Swift hints at in a new documentary series that captures the backstage action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, workouts and numerous performances across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own stage routines as “like extreme physical exertion in stilettos every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my moment so I could recover before I went on stage. You are working hard the whole time but crafting this image that it’s simple and stunning and ethereal.”
It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. What better figure to turn to than showgirls, who have always personified dreams, perfection and a world where nobody misses a mark.
