After a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the dancers from the production Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The show, known for its elaborate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and unimpressed critics who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is making a comeback.
The Master of Sparkle
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his trademark look, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. Recently, a “naked” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“I think it looks more appealing for the emerging artists who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a publication. “Contemporary performers are striving for a theatrical, more spectacular, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
The Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
She has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been adopted by singers including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across concert platforms in sparkles, cut-outs and plumes, spotlighted against overstated sets. Her fashion curator her creative director explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, Lipa’s dancers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Pulling from the Past
Modern stars and other chart toppers also reference historical entertainment forms, including burlesque and dance line references. The outcome are vastly different from the late-century Britney Spears era of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
A Coveted Classic Look
For gen Z and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a semi-sheer embellished dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an private amount to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke fond memories for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the story of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘acceptable’ appeal because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the shine but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Las Vegas
The expert says showgirls are integral to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still employed as an logo of the city, appearing at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” she says.
An Allure of Transformation
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the attraction. This is a notion Swift alludes to in a new documentary series that shows the off-camera action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, workouts and 149 concerts across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own showgirl performances as “comparable to completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her feathered headdress was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the backstage area three floors below in the basement. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. One is perspiring the whole time but maintaining this illusion that it’s simple and beautiful and ethereal.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. In the chaos of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. Who better to look to than such icons, who have always personified make-believe, flawlessness and a realm where no one makes a mistake.
