🔗 Share this article

After a long-running run on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! took a final perfectly timed kick in 2016. The extravaganza, famous for its elaborate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and critical critics who called it a spectacle “stuck in the past”.

Currently, nearly ten years later, showgirls, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.

The King of Sequins

Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made theatrical stage sparkle his trademark look, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to pop royalty. In a recent auction, a “see-through” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a shimmering fringed bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed 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 seeking something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a media outlet. “Today's artists are embracing a glamorous, more spectacular, breathtaking, memorable statement.”

A Musical Comeback

It’s a look that made its way all the way to the centre of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a chart-topping superstar. Earlier this year, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The crystal-covered bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.

Swift is part of a trend. This year, showgirl references have been embraced by music artists including Dua Lipa as they danced across arena stages in sequins, revealing designs and ostrich feathers, highlighted against overstated sets. Lipa’s stylist a fashion expert explained to a style publication he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, the backup dancers fluttered giant ostrich feather fans.

Drawing from the Past

Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also reference classic performances, including classic theater and chorus line references. The results are vastly different from the late-century Britney Spears era of short shirts and cargo pants, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that preceded this trend.

But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl revival. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. 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 seemingly Taylor Swift.”

The Highly Sought-After Classic Look

For younger and young adult stars, Mackie’s classic designs have become extremely desirable. In 2024, Zendaya honored to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a translucent embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Months after, Miley Cyrus paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn previously to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a collection of classic Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.

“The showgirl aesthetic evoke nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says a historian, a curator at the University of Nevada, who studies the history of showgirls. “Now it is considered a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the exposure.”

A Than Simply Style: An Icon of the City

She says this figure are key to the iconography of Las Vegas. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still featured as an symbol of the city, appearing at conventions and in marketing. “The showgirl is still a enduring icon of Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.

The Allure of Transformation

Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the allure. It’s something Swift hints at in a new documentary series that captures the backstage action from her extensive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense practice sessions, training and 149 concerts across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.

She recalls her own nights in the spotlight as “like extreme physical exertion in high heels every night”. Her headpiece weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the stage from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to leave early for my entrance so I could rest before I went on stage. One is sweating the whole time but creating this illusion that it’s easy and stunning and ethereal.”

It could be this is where the true allure of the showgirl really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a craving for fantasy. Who better to turn to than showgirls, who have always personified fantasy, idealism and a realm where no one misses a mark.