Following a three-decade tenure on the Las Vegas Boulevard, the showgirls from the revue Jubilee! took a final synchronised kick in 2016. The show, famous for its intricate costumes created by American fashion designer Bob Mackie, ended its run due to falling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who described it as a spectacle “stuck in the past”.
Now, roughly eight years later, the showgirl persona, or at least the showgirl style, is making a comeback.
A Sultan of Sequins
Dubbed the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glitz his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Hollywood icons to Madonna. Earlier this month, a “barely-there” bodysuit he made for Cher in 1978 commanded $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie created for Tina Turner for a 1977 performance sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they were accustomed to”, he told a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are embracing a theatrical, more spectacular, show-stopping, memorable statement.”
A Musical Comeback
It’s a look that made its way all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 propelled by a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the music phenomenon wore one of Mackie’s vintage Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her new musical project. The bedazzled bra and thong, plumed armbands and glittering headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is part of a trend. This year, glamorous nods have been embraced by singers including Sabrina Carpenter as they zoomed across concert platforms in sparkles, strategic openings and plumes, spotlighted against theatrical sets. Lipa’s stylist her creative director explained to Vogue he wanted to bring “a showgirl spirit” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the mid-century, her performers fluttered giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from the Past
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also take inspiration from classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and ensemble references. The final look are vastly different from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But certain observers are convinced with this glamour resurgence. Nancy Hardy, a former Jubilee! showgirl who performed in the 2000s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word showgirl is being “employed as an umbrella term including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now seemingly Taylor Swift.”
The Coveted Classic Look
For millennial and young adult stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s first major stars, Cher, when the actor wore a see-through beaded dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an significant price to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a collection of retro Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic inspire nostalgia for a historical elegance,” says Su Kim Chung, an expert at the a Las Vegas university, who documents the history of showgirls. “Now it is viewed as a sort of ‘safe’ sexy because it has been adapted. It has got all the elegance, the rhinestones and the sparkle but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Symbol of Las Vegas
Chung says showgirls are central to the iconography of Sin City. She points to one-time leader Oscar Goodman who, during official events, was accompanied by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas no longer has any showgirl-centric productions, the historian says they are still employed as an logo of the city, showing up at gatherings and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a remaining figure of Las Vegas glamour,” the expert says.
An Allure of Escape
Hardy says the complete change of a stage character is part of the appeal. This is a notion Swift alludes to in a new behind-the-scenes film that documents the behind-the-scenes action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included intense preparations, gym sessions and numerous concerts across 21 countries, each going on for 3.5 hours.
Hardy explains her own nights in the spotlight as “comparable to completing an endurance race in heels every night”. Her headpiece was 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the staircase to the performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the underground. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could catch my breath before I performed. One is perspiring the whole time but crafting this illusion that it’s simple and beautiful and magical.”
Maybe this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the busyness of 2025 there is a desire for fantasy. What better figure to emulate than these performers, who have always personified dreams, flawlessness and a world where nobody makes a mistake.
