The Last Showgirl's costumes reflect the vulnerability of Las Vegas
Any woman in entertainment knows there’s a tried-and-true process for getting stage-ready.
In Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl, starring the comeback queen herself, Pamela Anderson, the director demystifies the glamorous lore of the classic Las Vegas showgirl. In the film, Anderson portrays Shelley, a veteran Vegas dancer who still revels in the memories of the city’s yesteryear. After receiving unexpected notice that her longtime show would be closing, she sees that her future as a Vegas performer is suddenly far less clear, which causes her to reckon with her career, her life choices, and who she is ultimately doing this all for. The Last Showgirl has received critical acclaim since its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this fall, specifically for Anderson’s vivacious albeit vulnerable performance, which maintains parallels to the actress’s own history in the spotlight. And in typical Coppola fashion, every rhinestone, sequin, and fluttering feather is gorgeously captured.
Curating an authentic showgirl-approved wardrobe for the movie, however, was spearheaded by costume designer (and mother of Gia Coppola) Jacqui Getty along with stylist and Las Vegas native Jose Rodrigo, whose previous costume work alongside burlesque legend Dita Von Teese and pop diva Christina Aguilera all helped prepare him for this moment. Between Rodrigo's extensive experience behind the scenes of Las Vegas’s most elaborate productions and growing up outside of the city’s famous Strip, The Last Showgirl was not only the stylist’s crash course in how to handle costumes for a major awards-season contender in 18 days but also an unexpected ode to the city that raised him. Ahead, Harper’s Bazaar catches up with Rodrigo about working with Pamela Anderson, Jamie Lee Curtis, and the rest of the cast, digging into the Bob Mackie archives, and how the film highlights the real people (and style) of Las Vegas.
How did this project come to your attention, and how did you know you needed to be a part of it?
Back in October of 2023, I started working with Dita Von Teese to bring her residency in Las Vegas to the stage. She had actually approached Caesar’s Entertainment about potentially using the jubilee costumes from the former show Jubilee, the iconic 36-year-running showgirl show that was created by Bob Mackie and Pete Menefee. The costumes had been archived for about 10 years, or approximately about that time.
Flash forward to January, when Gia Coppola and Jacqui Getty came and approached and said, “Hey, we have this fantastic idea for a showgirl movie surrounding this story of a show closing,” et cetera. To be honest, that’s been like my life story working in entertainment. I said, “Absolutely, let’s see what costumes we can use and bring them to life and really memorialise them.” This was back in December when we had the discussion, and once 1 January hit, we hit the ground running pretty quickly. That was initially our entire meeting, and it was just very easy. Everything just kind of clicked, and we all bonded really quickly.
You’ve done some amazing work with other divas: Christina Aguilera, for one, along with Dita. How did working with them previously prepare you for styling this film?
What was interesting was being able to draw from both fantastic artists. They’re both incredibly strong, independent women who have always commanded the stage. In order to bring that type of energy into the film, I had to really draw from my experiences with them and share those experiences with our actors. With Pam, I’d explain to her what it’s like to be onstage during a live performance in front of, you know, millions of people. She’s an icon, and she has that exposure experience, but when you’re learning choreography, when you’re having to carry these very heavy costumes on you, it’s a totally different challenge. In a way, I was really costume directing; I’d teach the actors how to make everything look graceful while wearing these elaborate costumes and how to really bring that feminine energy and power to life.
How closely did you guys work with the team at Bob Mackie for these looks? Tell me about that collaboration.
The costumes had been archived for quite a while, so the responsibility really came down to me and my team to really revive these costumes, first for Dita and then for the film. More than anything, the collaboration that went on between our team and Mackie’s team was really just more about archival research. I had to sit down there with my assistant showgirl-costume curator who also worked with these costumes for years. His name is Jesse Phillips. We really wanted to stay true to the vision that Bob Mackie and Pete Menefee had done. We read up a lot on his vision and his intent for these costumes and what the idea was when they created these. We were able to get the best of the best for that time, and you see that in the quality of work craftsmanship and the fact these are 45-year-old antiques essentially and they’re still onstage. We needed to dust them off a little bit for sure, because I mean, you know, a few years’ worth of being in the archives—they do dust up. But we were just so surprised to see what beautiful condition they were still in.
When it comes to costuming the quintessential showgirl, what to you are the non-negotiables and some of the must-have components that you have to have to bring these really amazing looks to life?
Number one is fishnets. Any true showgirl—any seasoned showgirl—will tell you fishnets are the secret to the showgirl look. They’re the bane of our existence, but they make everything look beautiful and phenomenal. But often, it’s one snag and you’re done, and they’re either tossed or you have to find the time to repair them.
Next, rhinestones. Swarovski preferably. You can’t go wrong with a rhinestone and of course feathers, right? When they made Jubilee back in 1978 or ’79, there was a literal Swarovski shortage because so many rhinestones were used for the show. I think that speaks to the testament of time of the rhinestone: It’s the forever showgirl stone, and you can’t have one without the other. Besides that, you just need to have an incredibly strong, empowering, statuesque woman. Dita specifically has done a fabulous job of really allowing the showgirl to be multifaceted; it’s no longer just one body stereotype, and that’s really crucial. There’s lots of components to the showgirl.
I love that this a small but mighty cast. Obviously there’s Pamela Anderson, but you also have Brenda Song, Kiernan Shipka, Jamie Lee Curtis. What was it like working with these women?
I think it’s super important to note that each of these characters that Brenda, Kiernan, Pam, and even Jamie Lee bring to the table—each of these are real-life people that I’ve actually encountered growing up in Las Vegas. I was raised here, and it’s my hometown, and so I know that what Jamie Lee Curtis shows on screen—that’s Las Vegas. I think being able to really tie in those life experiences with these characters was really what allowed me to really look back at people I’ve come into contact with, right? Doing Jubilee and working with the primary showgirl, I was harkening back to what it was like working with her and her demeanor and how I would like to see maybe that represented in Pamela, for example.
Adding little things like maybe a smaller crown for Kiernan’s character versus something so grandiose for Pamela. You can see how that character carries on outside of her stage personas too. Pam has this very centre-stage, larger-than-life persona in the film because she’s living her dream! And then you see the other ladies come in, but they’re not of Pamela’s generation; you see how they become more comfortable and fluid with change and seeing things happen and exploring new adventures. That’s something that you see existing currently in Las Vegas, where you have the old guard still holding down traditions and the classic beauty of what it is to be a showgirl, then the new generation coming in and respecting it fully for sure.
What was the process of selecting the off-duty wardrobe for the showgirls?
All of the off-duty wardrobe and costuming pieces were actually spearheaded by our other costume designer, Jacqui Getty, and our fantastic team of Andrew Parish and Maggie Ramos. They just wanted to showcase what it’s like to be a real working human being, because at the end of the day, these beautiful icons that you see onstage just go to the supermarket like we do, right? They order off of Amazon; they go to the shops and buy their tops. A lot of that was us having a conversation as well and seeing, how are showgirls living outside of the show? The Ugg booties and the leg warmers and all of these things that are literal day-to-day items that these performers use—it was all drawn from real life. You need to see the transformation of these characters onscreen in order to see they’re also people in real life who transform once they go onstage.
As someone from Las Vegas, how would you describe the essence of Las Vegas style?
I think Vegas is really coming into its own. When I grew up, Vegas was all about functionality. If you were off the Strip, you were in comfortable clothes. I think people forget Vegas is an actual living metropolis. We have almost three million people who live in the city now. You have your soccer moms, you’ve got your work gear, and then you get to the Strip and that’s where everything kind of elevates. That’s where you have the furs and the cocktail dresses and the suits, and I think what’s great about that is it literally is that contrast you see in the film of reality versus not. Vegas brings about something in people when they come visit that allows them to sort of become this fantastical character that they’ve always wanted to play out perhaps in real life.
Even before a trailer was out for this film, when all we had was that one still of Pamela, it caused such a commotion. What was it like working closely with her to bring the character of Shelley to life?
It was a huge privilege and an amazing honour to work with her. I’m an ’80s millennial; I grew up with Pamela as part of our pop culture, and I’ve seen her struggle through as an artist and as a human, and to be able to just work with her to really see her talent—because she’s an incredibly talented individual—but to bring her life experiences and really see how they kind of played right in front of us in this character. She was also so respectful in the process. She wanted to learn everything right. She was so great at being open and understanding, knowing that we immerse our lives in these feathers and boas and rhinestones and crystals.
She was really committed to seeing what that was like, and I really respected that. I mean, the story is about anybody who’s been in entertainment, right? We’ve all been there, where you land the gig, it’s amazing, and then the carpet’s pulled right out from under you because the show closes or the series is canceled or whatever. She was just a phenomenal person to watch this story play out.
What did being a part of this film ultimately teach you?
The one thing that this film taught me was anything is possible in 18 days. We had such great guidance under Gia and Robert Schwartzman as our producer. What I learned more than anything is just the gratitude of being able to work with such talented and such just high-level skill set human beings, from our talent all the way down to our production assistants. These kinds of amazing projects don’t happen with one person at the helm, and I’ve really been able to memorialise this story that I myself have lived through. I’ve lived through the closing of shows, and I’ve seen showgirls crying on steps when we find out that we get the notice that a show is no longer going on. As someone who has lived this story, it’s taught me that everything is circular and changes. The only constant thing we have is the power of human resilience, like Shelley showed and how Pam has shown us, that really gets us through to the next big things.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
You Might Also Like
