🔗 Share this article

After a long-running stint on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The production, known for its intricate costumes designed by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to falling audience numbers and critical reviewers who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.

Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is experiencing a revival.

A Master of Sequins

Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top showgirl glamour his trademark look, dressing everyone from screen legends to pop royalty. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he designed for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with reflective wings that Mackie crafted for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.

“I believe it looks more attractive for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they were accustomed to”, he explained to a publication. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a glamorous, more dramatic, show-stopping, entrance-making statement.”

The Pop Culture Comeback

It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of popular culture in 2025 largely due to Taylor Swift. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The rhinestone encrusted bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were perfect for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.

She is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they whizzed across concert platforms in sequins, strategic openings and feathers, illuminated against theatrical sets. A top stylist 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 mid-century, her performers fluttered giant feathered fans.

Drawing from the Past

These artists and other hitmakers also reference 19th-century entertainment forms, including vaudeville and dance line references. The outcome are poles apart from the 90s pop style of revealing tops and cargo pants, and urban dance moves that preceded this trend.

But certain observers are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl title is being “treated as an broad label encompassing everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”

A Highly Sought-After Vintage Look

For gen Z and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, a style icon paid tribute to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a translucent beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was reminiscent of one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a series of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among collectors.

“Showgirls bring about nostalgia for a past glamour,” says an archivist, a curator at the University of Nevada, who researches the story of showgirls. “Currently it is seen as a sort of ‘toned-down’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the glitter but without the exposure.”

A Than Simply Fashion: An Symbol of Las Vegas

She says this figure are central to the iconography of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during civic functions, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas does not host any showgirl-centric productions, Chung says they are still used as an symbol of the city, appearing at corporate events and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a lasting icon of Vegas spectacle,” Chung says.

The Allure of Illusion

Nancy Hardy says the magical transformation of a stage character is part of the appeal. It’s something Taylor Swift hints at in a new documentary series that captures the behind-the-scenes action from her year-long 2023 Eras tour, which included gruelling practice sessions, gym sessions and countless concerts across dozens of cities, each going on for 3.5 hours.

Hardy recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to completing an endurance race in stilettos every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the platform from the dressing rooms three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could recover before I made my entrance. You are working hard the whole time but crafting this image that it’s easy and gorgeous and magical.”

It could be this is where the fascination of the showgirl really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a craving for escapism. Who better to look to than such icons, who have always represented dreams, idealism and a universe where no one makes a mistake.