After a 31-year run on the Las Vegas strip, the dancers from the revue Jubilee! gave one last choreographed kick in 2016. The production, renowned for its ornate costumes crafted by style icon Bob Mackie, closed its doors due to dwindling audience numbers and critical commentators who called it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Today, nearly ten years later, the showgirl, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
A King of Glitz
Dubbed the “sultan of sequins”, Mackie has made over-the-top stage sparkle his signature style, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to music superstars. In a recent auction, a “naked” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 fetched $57,600, far exceeding its projected value, while a metallic tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more attractive for the younger performer who is looking for something other than what they knew from childhood”, he explained to a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are striving for a glamorous, more dramatic, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
The Pop Culture Comeback
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the epicenter of the cultural zeitgeist in 2025 largely due to a chart-topping superstar. Recently, the entertainment titan wore one of Mackie’s original Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her 12th studio album. The crystal-covered bra and thong, ostrich-feather armbands and shimmering headpiece were ideal for a record titled The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, glamorous nods have been adopted by pop stars including Sabrina Carpenter as they whizzed across concert platforms in sparkles, strategic openings and plumes, highlighted against theatrical sets. Her fashion curator Lorenzo Posocco mentioned in an interview with a style publication he wanted to bring “a showgirl attitude” to her Radical Optimism tour – inspired by pictures from the 1950s, the backup dancers wafted giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from History
Modern stars and other successful musicians also take inspiration from 19th-century performances, including vaudeville and dance line references. The results are poles apart from the late-century teen pop of short shirts and utilitarian trousers, and hip-hop inspired dance moves that came before them.
But not everyone are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. An ex-showgirl, a one-time Jubilee! showgirl who danced in the 00s says the trend is “confusing”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an broad label including everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now even today's icons.”
The Highly Sought-After Vintage Look
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s vintage designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya gave a nod to one of Mackie’s earliest clients, Cher, when the star wore a see-through embellished dress created by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he created for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, another pop star paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie fringed mini dress she had worn at an awards show to perform at the Grammys. In September, the singer wore a collection of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a popular item among fashion collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic bring about nostalgia for a bygone era of glitz,” 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 ‘acceptable’ allure because it has been updated. It has got all the glamour, the sparkles and the shine but without the nudity.”
A Than Just Fashion: An Icon of Vegas
Chung says this figure are integral to the iconography of Vegas. She points to ex-mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. While Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, the historian says they are still employed as an symbol of the city, being present at conventions and in advertisements. “The showgirl is still a enduring symbol of Las Vegas glitz and glamour,” the expert says.
An Appeal of Illusion
Hardy says the complete change of a showgirl is part of the attraction. This is a notion Taylor Swift hints at in a latest behind-the-scenes film that shows the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting practice sessions, training and 149 shows across 21 countries, each lasting 3.5 hours.
She describes her own showgirl performances as “comparable to running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headpiece tipped the scales at 34lbs. “I had to carry it all the way up the stairs to the performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the lower level. I had to head up ahead of time for my entrance so I could recover before I went on stage. One is perspiring the whole time but creating this image that it’s effortless and stunning and dreamlike.”
Perhaps this is where the fascination of the showgirl fantasy really lies. In the chaos of 2025 there is a longing for a break from reality. Is there anyone better to look to than showgirls, who have always embodied fantasy, flawlessness and a world where no one misses a mark.
