After a long-running tenure on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the production Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, famous for its ornate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed critics who labeled it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is back.
The Sultan of Sequins
Known as the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, outfitting everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, seven times its estimated price, while a shimmering beaded bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 concert sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a newspaper. “New stars are embracing a theatrical, more theatrical, breathtaking, grand statement.”
A Musical Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of mainstream fashion in 2025 propelled by Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been incorporated by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across concert platforms in sparkles, strategic openings and feathers, spotlighted against overstated sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – referencing pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers waved giant feathered fans.
Pulling from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including burlesque and dance line references. The final look are vastly different from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of crop tops and baggy pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are convinced with this glamour resurgence. An ex-showgirl, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
The Highly Sought-After Retro Look
For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a style icon honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actress wore a see-through sequined dress created by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he made for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.
“Showgirls bring about fond memories for a past glamour,” says an archivist, head of special collections at the University of Nevada, who researches the story of showgirls. “Today it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
A Than Simply Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
She says the showgirl image are central to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still used as an emblem of the city, showing up at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining symbol of Vegas glamour,” she says.
The Allure of Escape
Nancy Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This is a notion Swift references in a recent behind-the-scenes film that captures the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, workouts and 149 concerts across 21 countries, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own stage routines as “comparable to extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to leave early for my cue so I could rest before I went on stage. You are working hard the whole time but maintaining this image that it’s easy and gorgeous and dreamlike.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. What better figure to look to than showgirls, who have always personified make-believe, flawlessness and a realm where no one misses a mark.
