After a long-running run on the Las Vegas strip, the showgirls from the production Jubilee! gave one last perfectly timed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its elaborate costumes created by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to declining audience numbers and critical critics who described it as a spectacle “a relic of another era”.
Today, almost a decade later, the showgirl, or at least the showgirl aesthetic, is back.
A King of Sequins
Dubbed the “king of sparkle”, Mackie has made dramatic stage sparkle his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from screen legends to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, well over its initial estimate, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with shiny wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more enticing for the new generation of stars who is desiring something other than what they grew up with”, he stated in an interview with a publication. “Today's artists are embracing a glamorous, more theatrical, attention-grabbing, grand statement.”
A Pop Culture Revival
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 thanks to a global pop icon. Recently, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The bedazzled bra and thong, feathered armbands and shimmering headpiece were tailor-made for a record called The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift has company. This year, showgirl inspirations have been incorporated by singers including Miley Cyrus as they danced across arena stages in glitter, cut-outs and ostrich feathers, spotlighted against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist Lorenzo Posocco told Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, Lipa’s dancers waved giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
Lipa, Carpenter and other hitmakers also reference classic performances, including classic theater and dance line references. The results are poles apart from the 90s pop style of crop tops and cargo pants, and street-style dance moves that were popular earlier.
But not everyone are enthusiastic with this glamour resurgence. A former performer, a former Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the 00s says the trend is “bemusing”. She thinks the word term is being “treated as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly today's icons.”
A Coveted Classic Look
For millennial and modern stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, a famous actress gave a nod to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a translucent sequined dress designed by the designer in 2001, which was similar to one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Later that year, a singer paid an significant price to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Sabrina Carpenter wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a favorite among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic bring about fond memories for a historical elegance,” says a historian, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the history of showgirls. “Today it is seen as a sort of ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the shine but without the bare skin.”
More Than Simply Style: An Symbol of the City
Chung says showgirls are key to the iconography of Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was flanked by two showgirls. Although Las Vegas currently lacks any traditional showgirl productions, Chung says they are still employed as an logo of the city, appearing at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
The Allure of Illusion
Nancy Hardy says the complete change of a stage character is part of the appeal. It’s something Swift hints at in a recent docuseries that documents the off-camera action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting rehearsals, workouts and countless concerts across dozens of cities, each lasting 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own nights in the spotlight as “like running a marathon in high heels every night”. Her feathered headdress tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to support it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the dressing rooms three floors below in the basement. I had to start early for my cue so I could catch my breath before I made my entrance. You are sweating the whole time but creating this image that it’s easy and stunning and ethereal.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the complexity of 2025 there is a desire for escapism. What better figure to emulate than these performers, who have always embodied make-believe, idealism and a world where nobody makes a mistake.
