After a three-decade stint on the iconic Vegas strip, the showgirls from the spectacle Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its intricate costumes designed by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and critical commentators who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, roughly eight years later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
A Master of Glitz
Referred to as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his trademark look, dressing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. In a recent auction, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a silver and gold fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the emerging artists who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he stated in an interview with a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a theatrical, more dramatic, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
The Pop Culture Resurgence
It’s a look that glided all the way to the epicenter of popular culture in 2025 thanks to Taylor Swift. In the past few months, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The crystal-covered bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were perfect for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by music artists including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across concert platforms in glitter, revealing designs and plumes, highlighted against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 50s, the backup dancers fluttered giant feathered fans.
Drawing from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also reference classic performances, including classic theater and chorus line references. The outcome are worlds away from the 90s Britney Spears era of crop tops and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the early 2000s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an catch-all phrase covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly modern pop stars.”
The Highly Sought-After Classic Style
For younger and modern stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress honored to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the star wore a translucent sequined dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an private amount to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, a curator at the University of Nevada, who studies the history of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘toned-down’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the rhinestones and the shine but without the bare skin.”
A Than Simply Style: An Icon of Vegas
The expert says this figure are key to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, Jung says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, appearing at corporate events and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Vegas spectacle,” she says.
An Appeal of Transformation
The former showgirl says the magical transformation of a showgirl is part of the allure. This is a notion Swift hints at in a new docuseries that documents the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, workouts and countless performances across multiple nations, each going on for 3.5 hours.
The performer describes her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her feathered headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my cue so I could catch my breath before I performed. One is sweating the whole time but creating this fantasy that it’s effortless and stunning and dreamlike.”
It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a longing for escapism. Who better to look to than such icons, who have always personified make-believe, perfection and a world where nobody makes a mistake.
