The Life of a Showgirl: It’s Beautiful
Worn On: 10/3/25 // the life of a showgirl
the commentary
Just as it would be impossible to do a showgirl-themed album without referencing Bob Mackie, it is near impossible to overstate the influence this iconic designer had on costume design. He’s responsible for some of Cher’s most memorable ensembles, but he was also at the helm for the costumes from Jubilee! — one of Las Vegas’ longest running live shows. Jubilee! put on over 20,000 shows over 35 years between July 1981 and February 2016. Mackie himself said this look is from Jubilee!’s “Jewel Finale” of the show. “The bra, undergarments, and armbands are all French wirework and backed with a blush fabric for a nude illusion. The bra and underwear have set stones and drops at the under-bust of the bra and the waistline of the underwear,” he said.
Taylor described Showgirl’s photoshoot “represent[ing] the [end] of her night.” She expressed a desire to “glamorize all the different aspects of how [The Eras Tour] felt.” Offstage, there’s a tension in seeing the shiny, smoothed artifice of the showgirl caught shedding her costume for the evening. A dissolution of the fantasy to reveal just a person beneath. I look forward to parsing this concept further once we overlay these images on Taylor’s lyrical scaffolding from this album.
Taylor is diligent when it comes to her visual world building and showgirl aesthetics has a rich history. If I had to guess, when Taylor sought to create an album that hinged on showgirl visuals, she reached out to the famed burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese for an assist and history lesson to make her vision as authentic as possible. When Von Teese set about preparing for her latest residency in Vegas - A Jubilant Revue - she sought to honour the legacy of the original Jubilee! production by reaching into the show’s actual costume archives, aided by The Last Showgirl stylist Jose Rodrigo. Von Teese told Vogue that the original costumes had been “locked up” in the downstairs of the Jubilee Theater for about a decade. She consequently jumped at the opportunity to give them new life on stage. “I thought it was a great time to be able to show them off again,” she said, adding, “I loved the extravagance and opulence [of Jubilee!]—the feathers and rhinestones.” Von Teese cameoed in Taylor’s “Bejeweled” music video from 2022’s Midnights. According to Von Teese, the Jubilee! costume budget alone was equivalent to $12 million. Von Teese supplied costumes from her longtime collaborator Catherine D’Lish when the pair recreated her iconic martini glass choreography. It’s possible she offered a hand here in passing along more of Jubilee!’s original costumes for Showgirl’s album visuals in order to pay proper homage to the costuming of real showgirls.
the clothes
* Not available for purchaseFeature Photo by David Eulitt via Getty Images